Princess's Last Flight
by Airship Canon
Summary: As Nohr threatens to burn her homeland to ash, Princess Hinoka makes a final, fatal decision. She'll lead the Special Attack Squadron as it attempts to repel the Nohrian offensive before it reaches Shirasagi. Fates 1940s/Weird War 2 AU. Rating likely will be increased due to some mild lewd content and violence.
1. Foreword: Princess's Last Flight

**Princess's Last Flight**

* * *

**Foreward: A Final Farewell**

_Location: Approximately 240 Nautical Miles off of Hoshido's Eastern Coast_  
_Date: 18th Of April; 3rd year of Open War_  
_Time: 11:26 Local_

Blue, infinite blue stretched out before them, the sun glinting off the ocean below and off the black bodies of the Nohrian patrol. The whistle and rumble of the aircrafts' engines and the periodic static of the radio had been the ambience for the past two hours, as the patrol encircled the 6th Battlefleet, the steadily approaching line of destruction flag-shipped by the great Battleship Brynhildr, under Admiral Leo, the feared strategist responsible for the devastating Nohrian Counterattack at the Sevenfold Sanctuary. Wispy white clouds dotted the horizon, where sky and sea seemed to meet almost seamlessly, and against that backdrop, the purple haired pilot could almost make out a few faint specks- shadows in the clouds.

Her brow furrowed as she stared at the dots breaking through the line. She threw a glance to her right. The black, and purple plane, tinged with sharp lines of red paint, marked distinctly with the words "Secret Dreamer" in ornate writing and starring a half-naked painting of the pilot of the aircraft, a woman with a sharp countenance, sharper tongue, and strikingly red hair; a cherry scarlet, the same as the striping encircling the plane's engine cowling and lining the tell-tale bent wings of the Nohrian fighter, and below the cockpit's glass were eighteen white marks- all the insignia of the Hoshidan Empire. A three-time ace, as was anyone in the squadron, VF-147, "Revenant Knights". The pilot had been looking forward and slightly down, not at first catching the look from the squadron commander, in her hand was a locket, and she had been looking at it for a moment as the flight had progressed on. Her eyes rose, and she looked towards her left, and caught sight of Captain Camilla's gaze. A small scowl appeared on her face as she looked back to her front, and her chest rose and fell as she gave off an annoyed sigh.

The reaction was all Camilla was looking for. She flipped a switch on the instrument panel of her own plane before gazing intently through a spyglass she pulled out of a pouch she kept on her drab gray flight suit. She stared intently through it, tweaking two knobs, one on the spyglass and the other on a gunsight, and slowly a glowing phosphoric crosshair began to display on the glass. She pulled back on the flight stick, putting her plane in a mild climb, gaining some altitude, but not explosively enough to signal the engagement. She smirked, almost sensually, increasing the throttle with her left hand and then, with a cold expression of voice, "Hoshidans." There was an immediate buzz of radio chatter. Planes began climbing all at once around her. "Keep formation, they're at least thirty thousand yards out- climb and increase throttle. Drop tanks on signal."

"Captain, I'm going to shoot more of them down than you," the red-haired pilot said sharply.

"This will be fun, won't it, Selena?" Camilla asked, as the planes climbed ever skyward.

_Location: Suzanoh Air Base, Hoshido._  
_Date: 18th Of April; 3rd year of Open War_  
_Time: 05:39 Local_

There was a heavy atmosphere of tension on the airfield, though one wouldn't know it at a first glance. Airfield mechanics were making final preparations on a flight of Hoshidan Fighters, as the sun was just peeking over the horizon, turning the fair skies pink and light blue, which for want of the location's wartime guard, would make the runway almost picturesque. Suzanoh airbase sat at the end of the massive fortification which protected the great city of Shirasagi, overlooking a cliff that stood beside Hoshido Bay, the grand port, and home of Hoshidan commerce. Somehow, despite numerous Nohrian air raids through both the port city and the capital itself, and the grisly damage that the bulk of Suzanoh had taken, the airbase itself had gone unmolested. The walls of its compounds still retained their brilliant whites, which looked pink in the rising sun's light. Roofs were a cherry red, and all the base's hangars were surprisingly clean. The main runway's lights were lit, though the fighters were sitting engines off on the ramp, while the two-colored light of the control tower's beacon flashed though the lining of cherry trees a few hundred feet from the edge of the runway. With the blossoms in full bloom, it painted an easy on the eyes sight for any observer.

A light warm breeze flowed across the airfield as a few of the pilots walked towards the planes. Among them was a woman with fiery red hair, and fierce eyes. She wore a flight suit that was almost ceremonial in design, as opposed to the uniforms of the other Hoshidan pilots walking towards the planes in the moments before the sortie would begin. Her hair was short, and tied back, with a headband tied around her forehead, emblazoned with a fiery red on white crest of the country she would fly for. A white scarf hung loosely around her neck, and she held a fuzzy helmet bearing a brilliant star shaped crest upon its back. Her shoulders were covered in a flowing silken cover, on it, royal gold on a deep red which fit with the striking colors of her garb. As her boots fell beside the wheel of the plane a larger woman with a softened face stepped out from underneath the pristine white-and red fighter, having tightened one last bolt.

The stockier woman holding the wrench wiped a bit of sweat and grease from her forehead before looking the pilot in the eyes. Her own expression showed an air of sorrow as the two women's eyes met. "Princess Hinoka." She said, calmly, though there was a shakiness in her voice.

"Chief Nozomi… I trust she's ready…" Hinoka said, her own expression softening and looking away. "For her— for my flight."

"She is, Hino…" the woman said, pulling her hand from a glove and placing it upon Hinoka's shoulder. "You don't need to partake in the Special Attack Squadron, you're the Princess of this land."

"No, I do… this is for Kaden… for Selkie. For Mozu… Mitama. For Ryoma and Setsuna… for Shiro. For Sakura, Takumi, and yes, for Corrin— for the brother I should have had. For our mother, and father…" Hinoka shook her head, "For all the people of Hoshido. For all the death and despair this ugly war has brought us. I vow I will make it right and if that means giving my life in the Special Attack Squadron, then I shall. It's precisely because I am the princess that I must do this."

"I understand, Princess… it's just all of us wish it hadn't come to this. To think our Princess Hinoka is being sent up like this," Nozomi said, wiping a tear that had welled up in her eye

"Thank you, Nozomi." Hinoka said, taking a bow before pulling her arm into a salute, which was readily returned by the maintenance chief.

Behind her, two more pilots were approaching similar aircraft to her own. Ground crews were meeting with the pilots and giving reports, while the airfield control flashed signals to trucks on the ground. The sun had risen well enough to turn the pinks golden, as Hinoka made the final checks on her plane, and started the engine. It rumbled to life, belching forth a thin black smoke from its exhaust, dusting the taxiway with soot, and the propeller began spinning. It didn't take long for it to produce the low rumbling hum of the engine at speed, while Hinoka went over the pre-flight checklist, systemically verifying each function of the plane. Ground crew removed the tire chocks as soon as Hinoka had given a signal to them, sending the plane rolling down the taxiway. A group of Hoshidan civilians lined a fence just outside of the base as Hinoka passed, among them, several children, and all of them giving her a salute or just a wistful look. Not a one had a happy visage, reminding her of her terrible task at hand.

"_In war there's two realities: Misery and death." _

The plane stopped as it came to the runway, others like it lining up behind. A signal light ahead turned green, and Hinoka let off the brake. The plane accelerated, pulling her back into her seat, and soon enough she could feel the wings pulling the aircraft up, ever skyward. She pulled a lever, retracting the plane's flaps, and jettisoning the landing gear: they weren't needed, for Hinoka had no intention of returning. This was to be the Princess's last flight, and to Suzanoh, and soon to Shirasagi, which was growing ever smaller as the plane climbed skyward, it was her final farewell.

* * *

**Author's Note: ** So, I've had this idea for a Fates 40's/Weird War AU for a long time. I originally was going to use a bunch of War Thunder Screenshots, tracing and such to do a comic, but that's so far above my artistic skill level, as to be impossible, but when I finally unveiled it, I realized how much I enjoy the concept. And so here I am. I've got two chapters written, and am on the third. Once the next chapter is up, story's rating will be upped.


	2. Chapter 1: The Last Sunset

**Chapter 1: The Last Sunset**

_The right mixture of fuel and air, and all it would take is a spark to set the entire world ablaze._

_What was it, then? That would lead the world into the madness of war?  
And from what of it would come? _

August 19th would be a date that would be remembered in the survivors of the war's minds. It wasn't the day the war openly began, but it was likely the final compressing stroke that started the engine of war, even if on that day many did not know it. The world, laid to ruin; with millions of people, on all sides of the conflict, both civilian and military dead in the following chaos.

It had all started in a small Nohrian Border Town.

The world's two great powers, Nohr and Hoshido, had never quite seen eye-to-eye. Nor had any peace between them been any more than tenuous at best. Be it economic or cultural reasons, it always had seemed like the two nations would set off an irrevocable chain of action and unleash pure chaos. On August 19th, it seemed that day had finally arrived.

Nohr, was, of course the industrial and economic giant of the era. It was built on ground rich in oil, iron, and all the workings of the great modern machine. It lacked arable land but thrived on imports and exports of all kinds of machined goods, built in great factories strewn about its packed cities. Smog held fast over many places, turning the Nohrian sky dreary and dim, even in broad daylight. Under King Garon, the nation had expanded explosively, transforming into an economic juggernaut. However, to many, its influence was as toxic as the smoke billowing from the factories that surrounded its capital, Windmire. It forcibly annexed a few smaller nations on its borders, and there always stood a harsh military presence wherever it moved.

Hoshido, by contrast, was a verdant land renowned for natural beauty, expansive farmland and the clear waters that surrounded the many islands between it and the mainland continent that shared its name. While a modern, industrialized nation itself, it had always lacked in natural resources, and as the Mokusho would attest, was just as belligerent and aggressive as its western rival, taking many opportunities to seize what oil and iron reserves it could.

Emperor Sumeragi, was if nothing else, a shrewd businessman. A man who traced his lineage back to Great Samurai houses, and always carried an almost haughty air about him, had arrived in the Nohrian port of Día, and was in route to Windmire to discuss a trade deal with King Garon, one sought after by both parties. It was known, to anyone listening to radio at the time, that this was the political-economic deal of the century. But by day's end, it was fear. Fear in everyone's heart of what was to come. At about 15:38, on the date of August 19th, Emperor Sumeragi was shot dead in his staff car. The Hoshidan Officers with him, also dead. And his two-year-old son, Kamui, missing. The car, and its escorts were shot some fifty or more times while awaiting a rail crossing in a no-name town about 30 miles out of Port Día.

Garon, of course, personally launched an investigation into the matter. As did the port Día authorities. Public statements were made, but it was clear that without Sumeragi, and the disappearance of the Imperial prince, the deal was doomed. War seemed inevitable. It was eventually concluded, that it had been a simple crime carried out by the feared Niles gang that had taken Sumeragi's life. No arrests were ever made. Even still there were rumors. Rumors that it was the Nohrian government that had put the hit out on Sumeragi. Rumors that Kamui had lived. Rumors that the Nohrians were plotting something to gain leverage over their eastern rivals.

Rumors, that for fifteen years went unsubstantiated. Fifteen years of tension, fifteen years of the constant question of what if. The newly widowed Empress Mikoto publicly denounced the crimes and ceased talks with Nohr. The world feared it was on the brink of war. A war that didn't come. Instead, what happened with the failures of talks wasn't war. It was an economic down turn. The wave of depression spread across the world like wildfire, and with it, it would seem then, that the gears that drove the world ground to a halt.

Famine struck Nohr hard. Nohr already lacked food supply due to its climate and inhospitable land. This was exacerbated by the very industry that supported the country. Smoke, smog, and ash from the factories made what little farmland Nohr did possess even worse. Words of revolution spread as quickly as fears of war had in the days following Sumeragi's assassination. The state of Cheve grew a fierce pro-Hoshido sentiment, while it was rumored King Garon had to send the military to the home of the renowned Ice Tribe to suppress an armed rebellion. Clashes between police and protesters grew ever more violent, while others still starved. No place in the country was safe from this.

The depression also punished Hoshido just as fiercely, though it came in different form. Militarists wormed their way into the government, and while food was plentiful, transportation was proving difficult. A cultural shift, emboldened by the death of Sumeragi had taken root in the nation, and with Industry weakened by the sheer lack of resources leading to economic pain and famine, was well underway. The nation became harsh. They taught a culture of honor, and in that, War. Soon Hoshido launched wars of annexation upon smaller nations surrounding the Empire— anything containing resources to seize control of. Still, though, they billed themselves to the world as the Empire of Peace. And, riding on their muted reaction to the assassination of their Emperor, and kidnapping of one of their Princes, how would anyone doubt that?

Secrecy reigned in Hoshido and in her harbors. There was a wheel turning, as the nation built up a large and powerful modern army and navy. Emboldened by early successes, the Hoshidan army began drafting darker designs. Their eyes grew greedy as they set their gaze upon Nohr. Nohr contained all the resources they needed to succeed and pull their nation from the despair that had gripped it, and if it existed, was it not their right to take it?

Tensions boiled over 15 years after Sumeragi's Assassination, as both nations put into action, secret plans, designs on each other. Plans that would escalate into War. On that day, Mikoto sent a fleet, following a plan designed by Imperial Tactician, Yukimura, to sea. The fleet wouldn't arrive at its fated destination for 3 weeks…

_Location: Nohrian Fleet Anchorage, Sevenfold Sanctuary Islands_  
_Date: 5th Of July; Before Declaration of Open War_  
_Time: 19:01 Local_

The Sevenfold Sanctuary Islands were, if anything the most idyllic places in Nohr, ignoring their troubled history and frequent debates over the legitimacy to the Nohrian claims to the island chain which lie near the center of the South Vallan Ocean. Called the sunniest place in Nohr, it was a series of tropical islands, with one large one containing the structure the island chain was named for, the Sevenfold Sanctuary, a holy place to any of the First-Dragon worshipping religions. This naturally made the island chain, and of course the island and sanctuary itself a political hotspot, since many people would seek pilgrimage to the famed, castle-like Sanctuary. Nohr claimed the islands decades ago and established a powerful naval presence there. Home of the 4th Battlefleet, the pride of the Nohrian Navy. The base situated on one of the smaller islands was surrounded by a bustling city that showed little to none of the standard Nohrian gloom. White plaster and wood houses lined wide streets that were adorned by a unique tropical charm.

Even near the harbor, a faint scent of fruit and rain permeated the air, a sweet presence that overwhelmed the near omnipresent scent of oil and combustion that Nohrian cities became known for. The sun was setting, its golden disc hanging off the edge of the oceanic horizon, bathing the port, and the jungle-shrouded mountains behind it in a brilliant golden orange. A few seagulls made calls in the distance, along with the periodic ringing of ships' bells. A couple cars passed down the street, while a family stood outside one of the houses, a man casually flicking the remains of a cigarette into an ashpit, while looking up at the sky. Two twin-engine flying boats, light patrol bombers, flew by with the sounds of their propellers, a distinct buzz in the evening ambience.

Down the street was a small pub, used more often by the military than the locals, and just outside leaning against a bench under the pub's neon signs, a few officers thereof. Among them, was a woman, with long, somewhat curly purple hair, glistening lips and a sensual smirk on her face. A passerby might think the woman a prostitute, were it not for her sharp Nohrian uniform, pressed and proper, and marked with a Dragon, wings spread wide on a silver collar device. The shoulder boards of her uniform adorned with four golden stripes each, and she sported several ribbons above her left breast. The ribbons were hard to see from the angle at anyone driving by would see, due to the woman's well-endowed-ness.

Beside her were two men, one in a similar uniform, though, at least at first, from the same angle, it wasn't as possible to make out any identifying information about his rank. He had a sharply shaven face, and fuzzy blonde hair, obscured by his khaki garrison cover, marked with a gold and silver crest in the image of a Dragon holding a Shield bearing the National symbol of Nohr in front of two golden anchors. He turned his head as he said something before laughing, the turn of his head revealed two silver bars on the opposite side of the crest. The other man was in a loosely fitting suit and tie, and his blue-tinged, drab grey hair poked out from beneath his black felt fedora. He held a bottle of beer in his left hand and had a surprisingly wide smile on his face. In his other hand, he held a camera, and looked ready to raise it.

Sitting on a bench besides the group was a red-haired woman, her hair pulled into long twin tails, her face plastered with an embarrassed scowl, and a radiant blush, rendering it almost as red as her hair. Her arms were fiercely crossed in front of her chest. A quick look at her would give away the need for her blushing, and her scowl. Her clothing was on the bench beside her, and her chest was very much exposed. She wore long semi-translucent stockings though they only came up slightly past her knees, and besides those, her red, lacy panties with garters underneath were all she was wearing.

The purple-haired captain shook her head. "No, that won't do, hon. You're showing your tits to the world," she said, reaching out with her right arm and casually grabbing the red-head's arm and tugging it away from her chest. As she did, the other woman's blush grew even deeper, and her eyes became even deeper of a scowl.

"Oh GAWDS, Camilla! What next, you want my panties and garters off? Are you some kind of a deviant? Wait, don't answer that," The exposed woman exclaimed, as she gave into Captain Camilla's demand to remove her arms from covering her chest. "I can't believe you're making me model as a cheap pinup doll. I so am going to get you back for this!"

"Hmm, that's really tempting, Selena. You'd look a lot nicer nude, but I'll let it slide, you can keep your undergarments on, as long as you're taking something off," Camilla said, with a chuckle.

The man with the camera laughed, setting down the bottle of alcohol. "Nice tits, Selena!" He said, raising the camera, and centering its view on Selena, whom hesitantly undid her right garter and leaned back, taking off the stocking, not quite completely. The man snapped a couple pictures of her in the pose before she quickly pulled the stocking back up to full length and reattached the garter, and as soon as it was reattached, she popped up to an upright stance. Her scowl grew visibly fiercer while Camilla took the camera away from the man who previously held it.

Selena pulled her arms up, not caring about her state of undress, and then quickly punched the man in the side of the face. "Gawds, Laslow. Stop staring at me. I'm not some cheap bawd. I don't care if you think they look nice, because this is all you're ever getting to see of them!" She exclaimed turning back and beginning to slide back into her clothes, starting with a pleated khaki dress that hung from her waist to half-way down her calves. The blonde lieutenant laughed for a brief moment, before Selena turned back, and without skipping a beat, or having recovered her top, stared at him. "Same goes for you Odin! You two boys better remember it, because it's all you're getting!" She huffed.

Camilla laughed, "Oh, they'll get to see this again."

"Only a picture, and a picture of a picture! Gods damn you, and I'm going to get you right on back. Next time we put a wager like that out, you know what's coming, Captain!" She barked, bent over, and pulling taught her brasserie, and slipping on a white undershirt, before rising once more, pulling on and buttoning a khaki blouse, tugging down the collar and affixing her garrison cap. "Now I'm going to get me a nice drink. And I'm kicking anyone's ass who mentions my tits again!"

Camilla giggled, "I'm sure you will... By the way," She said, pausing for a moment, her voice clearly teasing, "Nice tits, Selena," Selena simply balled her fists and scowled while the other two laughed for a moment.

As the laughter ended, Odin turned and placed his hand on Selena's back, "Let's all head into the Mila's Head Pub and get a drink. I'll cover you."

"How _kind_ of you", Selena said, sarcastically, brushing Odin's hand from her back, "I can get my own drinks, thank you very much."

"I agree, Selena…" Laslow said, rubbing the side of his face where she had struck him. "Sound alright, Camilla?"

"Oh certainly, Laslow. Why else would we have come here in the first place. We could've taken that picture of Selena anywhere." Camilla nodded, "And Odin, if you want, you can get _me _a drink or two. I might make it worth your while."

"I think I'll pass, Captain," Odin stepped back nervously.

"How about me, Camilla?" Laslow said, flirtatiously.

"No." Camilla turned and shook her head. "Unless you were to be mine. And only mine, you'd have to not flirt with another again. Of course, make me that promise, and I'll be all yours." She said, pursing her lips into a loose pucker as if she was offering a kiss.

"Ouch." Laslow shook his head, "That's impossible for me, Captain, I simply cannot."

"Well, then enjoy your lonely night," Camilla winked. "Anyway, I'm feeling kind of parched, so let's go get a couple drinks, shall we?" She added, walking away from the side of the Pub's outer wall, and turning towards the door. "After you," she said, holding the door open for Selena as she haughtily walked past Camilla and pompously sat at the bar. The other two were not far behind.

"_It was Gran 777, Gave their lives in service of heaven!  
Saint Heim's will be done!  
For the grace, for the might of their lord!  
For the home and hopes of the holy  
For Faith and the way of the Sword  
Gave their lives so boldly!"_

A group of three women sang at a single mic, as a swing band played on a stage behind them. A few incandescent lights lit the otherwise dark bar in a warm electric orange glow. There were several patrons in the bar, both civilian and military. The bartender was a woman with red hair done up in single side-tail. She was cleaning out a crystal pint glass behind the counter, and behind her rows of various spirits and kegs of beer. The bar smelled distinctly of booze and tobacco smoke rising from the multiple ashtrays and cigarettes and cigars held by the various patrons. A few men were gathered around a pool table, while a floozy-looking blonde woman danced drunkenly in a lonely corner of the establishment. Several faded posters hung on the walls: advertisements for a few musical groups, automobile repair shops, and sticking out an advert for the Nohrian Navy. Adorning it was visage of the brand-new Carrier, the_ Queen Arete_, and a large grouping of fighters. A woman, similar in stature and body to that of Captain Camilla, to the point of questioning if it was supposed to be her, was standing and holding a salute on the poster. In grandiose words boldly printed across the picture it said "King Garon and Queen Arete need you! Fly for the Nohrian Navy!", and in a smaller font, "Contact your local recruitment office. Benefits include Pay, Medical and Travel. Two years education provided."

Sitting beneath the poster was a white-haired man, wearing a Nohrian Navy uniform, his sleeve showing a resting Wyvern sitting atop two violet chevrons, and below that, two additional violet stripes. The man had a strong spirit in a small bottle sitting by him and was reading, rather intently the newspaper for the current day. The headline was as peaceful as it would come, "Windmire Braves Win World Cup!" highlighting the recent conclusion of a sporting event. "Ice Tribe Rebellion Cooled off" read as a minor headline, as did "Ambassador Corrin to travel to Hoshido" and "Nohrian Navy increases Recruitment Effort after launch of new Aircraft Carrier. Queen Arete needs Pilots.", "Secret Seller Foundation touts new Beauty Products". The man looked to his left and waved as he saw the group from outside walk into the pub. He placed his newspaper down and folded it precisely, creasing it with his fingers and then his wrist. He picked up his bottle of alcohol and gave it a quick swig, wiping his mouth with a napkin that sat folded up beside him. After he set the bottle down, "Lieutenant!" He called out waving specifically at Laslow.

Laslow stopped, before muttering under his breath, "No fine dames today, except the bartender…" before he saw the white-haired man and then waved off the other three. "FC2 Rikard? You're here?" he asked rhetorically, pulling up a chair and taking a drink of the mostly-empty bottle he walked in with. "How have you been? Haven't seen you since the exercise on the _Bolverk_!"

"The same as I've always been, Sir. Are you with the Revenant Knights now?" Rikard responded and slid Laslow a shot glass from a rack on the wall and beckoned the Bartender.

"No, but Lieutenant Selena is. Me, her and Odin go way back. Further than you and me," Laslow answered finishing off his bottle, and winking at the bartender. "Odin and I got transferred to the Queen Arete… and here I was thinking I was going to get shore duty." Laslow laughed. "You here on assignment?"

"Port visit sir." Rikard answered.

"What ship?" Laslow asked, "and I don't see you with your nose in a book this time. Finally got something else, like a fine lady?"

"The _Aurgelmir_. And no, I've just been reading the paper." Rikard responded.

"Wait, you said the Aurgelmir? As in the Flagship Aurgelmir?" Laslow exclaimed, "How'd you wind up there?"

"I just got picked for orders. Nothing much else to it, I suppose." Rikard answered, pulling out the newspaper once more.

"Always got your nose in some kind of information, don't you?" Laslow laughed, "You really do remind me of my sister Lucy's boyfriend… no wait, her husband now."

"Oh, she got married?" Rikard asked, "Congratulations for her."

"Yeah, she did. Married her first boyfriend, but hey they were…"

"Obnoxiously perfect together!" Selena's voice was almost boisterous as she sat next to Laslow.

"Selena?!" Laslow asked, turning back towards the red-head. "When, what?" He stammered, as the red-head pushed her way into his conversation.

"Yeah, Lucy better have married Robin. If they didn't, I'd be so disappointed in her. Because of course, s-she would have a perfect boyfriend." Selena said. "Perfect girl, always…"

"Selena, you're drunk, and we've not even been here for half an hour." Laslow shook his head. "And you're going to make it awfully hard for me to hit up the cutie behind the counter."

"Oh, who cares about her!" Selena exclaimed, slamming her fist on the table. "What about me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Selena, I figured you wouldn't want anything to do with me, what with all the death glares and all you've been giving me. And the punch, can't forget the punch."

"Oh, I don't but I do." Selena said, pointing her finger at Laslow's face, her own face in her trademark scowl, before grabbing him by the collar. "You were talking about my tits again, weren't you!?"

"I think I'm going to have to leave this one to you, sir." Rikard said, getting up from his seat and grabbing his white Dixie cup from the counter, leaving behind money to pay his tab and as he walked out, he tossed a couple extra coins the bartender's way.

"Wait! Rickard! Help! Please!" Laslow exclaimed, trying to claw his way away from Selena. "Odin!? Camilla!?"

"You're on your own, Laslow!" Camilla hollered back. "Don't have too much fun with her!"

"Fun!? She's going to kill me!" Laslow cried, as Selena took him by the collar and dragged him out of the bar, with everyone turning their heads to watch the spectacle, before turning back to their drinks as the pub's door slammed shut behind them. The band had stopped playing and another group took the stage as the commotion ended.

Camilla sighed, taking another sip of her drink, while Odin pulled up a seat next to her. Her face showed a bent expression as she looked back at a neon sign displaying a logo for a local beer company.

"What vexes you, Captain?" Odin asked, "Your face shows of concerns, shall I smite one or the other for you?"

"Oh, no, it's nothing you should concern yourself with… just, my Brother should be in Hoshido now." Camilla said, turning her drink in her hand, before taking another swig. "He's being sent to offer a gift to the Empress Mikoto, to try to bring the Empire back to trade discussions."

"Your brother?" Odin asked, "I know of General Xander and Admiral Leo, but I didn't know you had any others."

"Well, he's not really my brother. My mother adopted him before she passed away. His name is Corrin. Garon figured he'd be the perfect emissary to send to Hoshido to try to goad Mikoto into opening up the trade routes again… It's a minor trifle. Don't worry about it, Odin." Camilla stopped and looked around the bar for a few moments. Neither said much as the other band had gotten rolling into song.

"_Hilda's on call from Freege, said Rein's really done the job.  
Julius calling from 'halla, said "You're gonna be the star".  
Captain this'll be your last patrol,  
The Army's comin' across the canal, I think you know the job!" _

Odin looked back at Camilla, "By the way, Captain, might you reveal the name of your plane?"

"Pardon?" Camilla asked, surprised at the question. "Where did that come from? You want to fly it?"

"Oh heavens, I've never considered that." Odin shook his head, "But it'd be angelic though. Surely such a beautiful aircraft as it has an equally striking name."

"Sorry to disappoint, but it doesn't," Camilla answered. "It's just a Wildcat, like any of the others."

"That's such an injustice that must not be allowed to stand!" Odin exclaimed. "Any weapon is a person's partner in battle, and to endow such with a name is to give it meaning and purpose! To let it go unnamed is blasphemous and it must be corrected at once!"

"You name it then." Camilla said, "As long as it matches me."

"Truly you'd give me such an important task?" Odin asked in near excitement.

"I can't think of anyone more qualified than you," Camilla responded, "But, I think I've had enough, and will be retiring to my quarters for now. Let me know what you think up… and check on Laslow, make sure he makes it to Holiday routine muster. Or at least calls."

"I, uh, roger, Captain." Odin acknowledged as Camilla rose and walked out of the bar. "Don't drive anywhere!" He called out after her.

_Midnight, Following morning_  
_Time: 00:48 Local_

Laslow awoke, slowly adjusting his eyes to an inky darkness, and not quite aware of where he was. He knew he had a splitting headache, that was certain, as was the bruise on his arm. Judging by the sound he was either outside, or somewhere rather exposed. The darkness was only slightly cut by moonlight, and eventually it came to him, that, he was in a hangar. An empty hangar, at the least, but he didn't make it back to his quarters either way. He groaned slightly, as he rubbed his pained arm, blinked a couple times to get the gunk out of his eyes, as he looked around, trying to figure out just what happened. Last thing he truly could recall was being dragged out of Mila's Head by an angry and drunken Selena.

He looked over to his right, and there were three empty bottles, too dark to read the labels, and they simply reeked of alcohol. And asleep against a crate was Selena, her clothes not fully on, and then a wave of panic of what would happen when she wakes hit him like a pile of bricks. The woman would hardly give him the time of day were that they were sober, worse, perhaps, in his mind was not remembering the past few hours and anything he may have done with her. He patted himself down, to realize he was still fully clothed, if they were ratted and anything besides clean. He let out a quick yawn and walked outside.

He looked over his shoulder to get his bearings. There wasn't anything particular going on, and the moon still hung high in the midnight sky, the waves crashing on the rocks and the distant hum of a few cars in the city the only sounds he could hear. There was a strange peace to it. He looked back in front, they were clearly on base, at the airfield fighter ramp, a few of the planes stood ready outside, as a radar spun on a tower not far from the hangar, and along the runway stood another, mounted to a truck. He had somehow gotten his car here, it was parked not too far from the hangar, and he walked up to it and sighed, as he placed his hand on the door handle. There was an almost electric jolt as he did, however, stopping him and having him walk back in front of the hangar door, peeking over at Selena.

"Gods, I hope I didn't lay with her. Not like that…" he said to himself, before lighting a cigarette he had kept in his breast pocket with a flip-lighter kept, taking one hit and then letting it hang in-between his fingers. He looked back, she was still asleep, and then he looked forward out to sea. There wasn't anything really to do or look at, and he found himself wondering why exactly he had gotten up at this hour. After he thought on it, for a moment, he snuffed the cigarette, letting it mostly have gone to waste before finally deciding, that ultimately, he and Selena needed to get back to quarters. There would be plenty of time to sort out this drunken night later, after all, they were going to be here a while, and it wasn't like they weren't on the same ship, even if that ship had already left before the squadron had arrived.

He swallowed and walked over to Selena. She was passed out, and her blouse had been discarded, and her undershirt and brassiere were half off. She had a clear look of drunken stupor on her face and was lying in a way on the cold concrete that would sure have led to pain in her arms and legs come the morning. He audibly gulped as he reached out and grabbed her shoulder, and softly said, "Hey, Selena. …we shouldn't be sleeping here."

She turned and groaned, her face going clearly to a deep sour expression, and she pulled away from his rough hands. "No, no… dammit mother." She mumbled, rolling her face down onto the concrete. "You flew off… and died. Had to be a hero…"

"Lieutenant Selena." He said, a bit louder. "Wake up, dammit. We can't be staying here."

She turned, and opened her eyes, stumbling over herself as she tried to rise to her feet. She was hardly in any sound physical or mental condition, and almost immediately brought herself to attention and raised her hand in a salute. "Lieutenant Selena DeRosette, Wildcat pilot for the Nohrian Navy, reporting for duty… sir…" She said, losing focus and stumbling back. Laslow caught her arm and stopped her fall, letting her sit down, her back against a crate, and her arm resting against a steel drum. A strange mix of a yawn and a groan escaped her throat as she tucked her head down against her legs for a moment, blinking and trying to come to her senses. Another pained groan left her lips as she brought her head back up, and then she caught sight of Laslow, standing just in front of her. Her eyes widened as she saw him, and then she looked around the hangar for a moment as she realized the state of undress she had gotten to.

"Gawds!" she exclaimed, her eyes fiercely narrowing as she stared at Laslow. "You better not have done anything to me."

"I wouldn't have dared." Laslow said with a casual smirk and a shrug of his shoulders.

"I don't believe that. Why is my top almost off?" she asked with a pint of venom in her words, and her lips forming a distinct, ferocious frown, while her eyebrows raised.

"Look, you're completely gorgeous, but being honest, I got blackout drunk and the last thing I remember was you violently dragging me from the bar, and nearly breaking my arm before punching me in the chest," Laslow explained, "I didn't sleep with you or anything. Look, it was all you and the stupid amount of alcohol we had… what were you drinking anyway? Torpedo fuel?"

"Oh. My. Gods." She shook her head and scrunched up her arms. "Where the hell are we anyway?"

"One of the unused hangars, we're not too far from the control tower. …And look, I know you're not happy about whatever happened tonight, but we need to get back to our quarters one way or the other, and from the sounds and looks of it, you're still drunk, and anyways, it's my car that got us here, even if I don't remember what happened."

Selena shook her head and rolled her shoulders. "I'll be fine walking back_, thank you very much_," she said, letting the sarcasm in her comment drip out as she stumbled to her feet, keeping her balance by holding loosely to the crate and drum. She wobbled, with the anger in her visage replaced by an expression of pain and her scowl softened into a frown. She looked up at Laslow who shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "Ugh. Fine." She said, not losing the anger, despite the softened expression.

Laslow stifled back a giggle, and took a couple steps forward, before pulling his arm around her, and helping her stay on her feet. "It's not a far drive, but one long walk."

"Gee, I think I know that…" Selena said, stumbling, "I think I'm gonna be sick…"

"No, I think you already are," Laslow responded, walking them out of the hangar and onto the moonlit concrete of the ramp. In the distance, the sound of ringing bells from the ships at the port- stricken twice rang through the humid night air, and with that, they both stopped for a brief moment.

"Sarcasm does not suit you, Laslow," she retorted.

"According to you, nothing does," he laughed.

"Ugh, you're hopeless," she shook her head and took a couple more steps. "You know, I really do hate you."

"Car's back this way," he said, correctively guiding her back towards the car which sat parked alongside the hangar. They walked, slowly, stopping every few feet so she could keep her balance, and eventually reached Laslow's car. Its deep azure pained body didn't show much in the night sky, though the moon reflected off the chrome linings, but it still hardly stood out. After they arrived, Selena slumped over on the hood, while Laslow opened the doors. She stumbled back and keeping her hands on the cool metal managed to get herself into the car without winding face down on the ground. Laslow shook his head as he watched the spectacle of the drunken woman attempt to get into the vehicle. She leaned over in the passenger seat while he turned the ignition and closed his door with a hefty clunk. The Engine whined as it turned over, before eventually coming to a loud rumble of its idle. Laslow looked over his shoulder and put the car in reverse for a moment before turning around and passing out of the fence, waving at the lone gate guard as they did.

"Hey… Laslow…" Selena said, slowly, "I'm glad we're friends…"

Laslow paused and raised his eyebrows as the car rolled down the road. "What was that, Selena?"

"Don't make me say it again" she responded, raising her right hand to her forehead.

* * *

**Author's Note: **I may, in fact be taking cues from _The Sky Crawlers_, an excellent book/anime (movie)/game series by Project Aces (The Teacher is more an Ace of Aces than William Bishop!) and MORI Hiroshi for part of this. See if you can spot some of that. The songs at the bar are based on real life songs, though they're very much not period-accurate (The Last Stand by Sabaton, though it's the Bombshell Belles' cover; and ME-262 by Blue Oyster Cult). Yeah, I did, in fact, have to include some Robcina in there. I don't really have much more with them though, as they're not part of this. No, that's not the Premium port theme from World of Warships as the chapter title, I don't know what you're saying.


	3. Chapter 2: The Journey Begins

**Chapter 2: The Journey Begins, Starts from Within**

* * *

"_You can choose which side of the street you walk down every day. Even if the road is the same, you can discover new things. Isn't that enough to live for?"  
\- Lt. Yuuichi "Cairn" Kaname, moments before a fatal Air-to-Air Engagement.  
_

_Location: Skies over Northern Hoshido_  
_Date: 5th Of July; Before Declaration of Open War_  
_Time: 08:16 Local_

Hinoka breathed deeply, inhaling the fed oxygen as her world turned. Ground was overhead, and the sky beneath. The buzz of the fourteen-cylinder engine and three-bladed propeller in front of her rattling through her head as she fought off the dizziness of the tight turning engagement. The target, a Nohrian made fighter: wide wings and six guns, prop-forward, featuring a cage cockpit, painted drab olive green, and emblazoned with a Roundel that revealed its service to the Mokusho, maneuvered frantically. The pilot of the enemy plane was someone with some skill and had seen the first loss of one of Hinoka's wing mates. The enemy fighter had caught her in a head on engagement that took the Hoshidan force by surprise while they were completely off guard. He had been hiding in the clouds, and by time he had been spotted, it was too late. The Nohrian-supplied plane had pounced, and shots rang out from its six .50 caliber machine guns. Flames erupted from the shattered Hoshidan plane, and a grizzly splattering of blood filled the cockpit as bullets ripped through the plane and pilot. The light Hoshidan Fighter spun towards the ground, its pilot dead, and airframe ruined. The Mokushan fighter took no fire. Three more had moved from below, their silhouettes masked by the rising sun.

Hinoka had managed one kill, in a one-second burst, expending one-tenth of the rounds from the 20mm cannons, and far less than that from the two .30 caliber machine guns in the plane's cowling. The enemy had three of the newer fighters, and two of the far more outdated silver-colored fighters that only mounted 4 lighter machine guns, escorting three bombers. The bombers had struck a Hoshidan outpost earlier in the morning, killing a strikingly substantial number of Hoshidan soldiers while they slept. Bombs seemed aimed at quarters, as opposed to materiel and command structure. Of course, Mokusho raids were never known for their accuracy. A few of the bombs dropped from high-altitude had landed on civilian residences. One of the hundred-pounders that had been dropped failed to detonate, but it still smashed a young girl's mother's head in, an image that would be burned into Hinoka's mind as she had taken to the skies.

Two white-and-red Hoshidan fighters turned with her, tight as they could force the plane and themselves to handle. Hinoka took a quick glance across her shoulder to keep pace with them. The fighter was hers. They needed to knock those bombers out of the sky. The plane's engine whined as she increased the throttle, fuel-lines injecting a more potent chemical into the carburetor. A faint flash of burning exhaust could be seen beneath her plane as she closed in. The enemy plane had expended its energy and was now fighting a losing battle: its only hope of survival was to disengage from the immediate dogfight, and more importantly recover its altitude. She had no intention to allow her foe to do that. The plane crept closer in her view, the tighter turn radius of the Hoshidan craft winning out, leaving the Mokusho aircraft unable to regain the energy advantage.

Hinoka pulled down the trigger. The report of the guns filled the air. Not enough lead, the Warhawk flew by, taking none of the fire. She let off the trigger and pitched the plane back, increasing the lead by a single degree, and again she fired. Immediately, the Mokusho aircraft burst into flames. Its right wing explosively burst off from the impact and detonation of the 20mm high-explosive incendiary rounds striking the aircraft. It broke apart, ammunition cooked off, and ultimately, became an incandescent ball of flame that plummeted to the ground, exploding on impact.

"Score one Moke", Hinoka said, keying her radio, her breath still labored as she recovered from the G-forces applied to her in the turning engagement. "That makes two." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw streaks of black smoke arc towards the ground. Flames rolling alongside it, as it broke into multiple pieces. "Bomber down?"

"Affirmative, Princess" a nonchalant sounding woman's voice responded, as two more Hoshidan planes peeled off from the flaming wreckage of the downed bomber. A chrome-covered aircraft rolled out from beneath the two, the tracers fired from its four machine guns visible in the broad sunlight, only for a Hoshidan craft to loop around from the side, firing almost direct into the horizontal of the Mokusho aircraft, eviscerating it mid climb.

"That's one of the lighter crafts" a man's voice said over the radio. "Two of their new birds, One bomber, and an older fighter down."

"Four Mokes," Hinoka said, rolling her aircraft, catching sight of a dot on the horizon, one of the Mokusho aircraft in a climb.

"They're retreating," the lazy sounding voice said again.

"We can't risk them getting away, or they'll strike again," Hinoka said, angrily.

"Calm, death will come for them," The man responded. "In time."

"We don't have time to wait, Azama," Hinoka sharply retorted. "They get away, they return with more bombs and kill more Hoshidans."

"And we don't have the fuel to pursue," Azama calmly said, leveling his aircraft alongside Hinoka's. "We can't run down the Bombers and dogfight the remaining escorts and make it back…"

Hinoka's eyes widened and she looked down at the fuel gauge, which had a pair of markings papered into it, "…dammit. You're right, Bingo Fuel. Return to base." She said back, the disappointment in her voice clear.

"Wilco," Azama answered, as the Hoshidan planes peeled right, flying away from the retreating Mokusho aircraft.

Three white and red fighters broke through the clouds, engines purring at cruising altitude as they flew solemnly away from the snow- and ice-covered battlefield. Trees once covered in brilliant white snow, turned black, as flames, soot and ash from the wrecks scorched them. Even in the cold north, a wildfire could break out when fuel and explosives laden aircraft crash, and a column of smoke marked graves of four Mokusho pilots, and one dead Hoshidan. To Hinoka, it wasn't a victory. One could describe it as such, one of the bombers was downed, as well as three fighters, at the cost of one of the four Hoshidans. But for her, one was already too much. Besides, the objective, the Bombers, hadn't been all shot down. They'd return, and more Hoshidan lives would be lost. It was irreconcilable. Nevertheless, the surviving Hoshidan pilots had their lives; for that at the least, she was grateful for. "Only loss was Second Lieutenant Tsukino Orishina." Hinoka said to herself, adjusting her scarf to allow some of the excess heat that had built up from the fight off of her body.

_Location: Shirasagi Palace, Hoshido_  
_Date: 5th Of July; Before Declaration of Open War_  
_Time: 19:26 Local_

Corrin laid down on the bed, or what was described as a bed anyway. It was more a mat, laid down in an elegant stateroom, to give some aspect of a place to sleep. The room smelled of a strong incense, with a hint of tea. A few candles were lit on a table which sat alone in a corner of the room, while a few low power incandescent lights bathed the room in an inviting warm orange that matched well with the creamy white painted walls adorned with golden coloration and a striking floral design, as well as the few box-planted bamboo stalks set nicely beside the distinctive cinnabar wooden columns at the corners. There was a striking bit of modern luxury to the room, which had a television set, much to Corrin's surprise, as well as a radio; of course, he had traveled with his own. The sound of bubbling water could be heard from just outside, as the Palace was built on and around a natural hot spring, which flowed into bathing pools frequently utilized by Hoshidan nobility, and important guests, like foreign dignitaries, such as himself. He let out a yawn and looked up at the blank white ceiling, the accommodations of the Hoshidan palace were welcoming enough, as was the way he was treated, but there was still something off about the ordeal.

He was to meet with Empress Mikoto and Prince Ryoma at 08:00 the following morning, to discuss the matters at which he had been sent, but perhaps it was that he was kept apart from Felicia and Lilith, that was keeping him on edge. One might guess he wasn't keen on being separated from his family, but, he had been training as a Nohrian representative for much of his life. He'd be isolated and forced to speak in foreign languages, which he took to and learned with astonishing pace. It was his siblings and his staff: Master Sergeant Johan Gunther, Felicia and Flora Bjartheim, and Lilith Farnes; whom had been regularly at his side. Being away from home was nothing new or unusual to him, but nevertheless he felt distinctly ill-at-ease.

He, at first might have blamed the lack of ambience for the unease, as even with the room's beautiful design it still felt empty and cold. However, even after he had turned the radio on to a frequency that was only receiving static, which put a familiar enough buzz into his ears, he found the uneasiness still unabating. He rolled over onto his side and looked towards a paper-covered window that was loosely letting the fading evening sunlight, filtered by the large leaved oak and elm trees, which lined the palace grounds, into the room which illuminated small dust particles which danced before his eyes. The day had proved to be rather long, a two-stop flight from Windmire to Hoshido on a twin-engined plane. It had been an overnight flight, and while the props had rattled and shook the aircraft as it hummed through the sky, it thankfully was equipped with beds, which allowed Corrin some much needed sleep. Upon landing in a remote town far from Shirasagi, he bid farewell to Gunther, Flora and Lilith, who stayed behind with the aircraft, and to maintain communications with home. Only Felicia, and the driver of the car he had ridden in had accompanied him. The name of the driver was lost on him, the tall Hoshidan man had split brown bangs and a straight forward-looking face and was always frowning. He drove with precision, fast and elegant, but that was all Corrin could remember about him. Arriving at the palace, he was separated from Felicia, which had partially set him on edge.

He yawned, sitting back up and opening one of the suitcases he had brought with him. Inside were various documents, written in both Hoshidan and Nohrian, an elegant bottle of wine, and a diverse number of other things, such as a Hoshidan Newspaper he had taken upon his arrival to the country. However, it was a small pistol that was hidden beneath a false cover of the suitcase that was the object of Corrin's attention. He pulled it from the case and slipped it underneath the pillow. It was a minor security, but one he had some modicum of confidence in at the least. He let out a yawn, snapping the suitcase closed once more, which he set beside the others, and laid back down, shifting his pillow and body to get a bit more comfort when he swore he heard humming from just outside his room.

"_You are the ocean's gray waves,  
Destined to seek, life beyond the shores  
just out of reach"  
_

He sat up immediately, unsure of what else there was: his diplomatic meetings were scheduled for the following morning, not this day, and he was informed he'd be undisturbed for the night, but here were the sounds of someone humming, something that he couldn't quite make out, though, he could tell it was in Nohrian as opposed to Hoshidan, right at his door. He turned his head, and sure enough, the humming stopped for a moment, followed by a knock.

"_Embrace the Dark you call a home,  
Gaze upon an Empty white Throne;  
A legacy of lies, a Familiar disguise;"  
_

It was clearly a woman singing, and Corrin's first response was that she had a beautiful voice. "Was she there for him?" He wondered as he rose to his feet and slid open the wood-and-paper door. Sure enough, standing in a loose aqua-blue and golden silk Yukata, with an obi and bow positioned forward and slightly to the left, was a woman with long blue hair, and golden eyes. She immediately stopped singing and took a formal Hoshidan bow. Corrin smiled and waved at the woman. "Hello?" He greeted her with a questioning tone, unsure of why this woman would seek him out.

"Are you Corrin?" She asked formally, her words in clear Nohrian, despite her Hoshidan dress.

"I am," Corrin answered with an almost unease in his voice, unsure of what was going on. "I wasn't informed of your arrival, um…"

She smiled and took hold of Corrin's right hand. "I am Azura, and Empress Mikoto has asked me to attend to you tonight."

Corrin's face turned red as he realized what the woman had implied by the statement. Her dress accentuated that, "I'm sure that won't be necessary, though I appreciate the sentiment from the Empress and yourself."

Azura shook her head and took a half step forward. "At the very least, I will keep you company," she said, letting go of Corrin's hand and entering the room. "It is…" she distinctly paused, "Hoshidan custom," She finished her sentence before kneeling on Corrin's bed roll. "A dignitary of a country like Nohr is to be treated well and shown the highest of Hoshidan hospitality. I am to be yours tonight, Sir."

This was odd, Corrin thought, as he looked at the woman. She was strikingly beautiful but something about her seemed so sad. It had surprised him to hear her sing in Nohrian, but perhaps that had to due with her obvious role as a courtesan. He followed her back to his bed and sat beside her. It was a silent moment as he sat there besides the woman, neither speaking, until she started to hum that song she was singing earlier once more, finally breaking the silence.

"_Sing with me a song, of conquests and fate;  
The black pillar cracks, beneath its weight.  
Night breaks through, the day, Hard as a stone  
__Lost in thoughts, all alone" _

The words and tone of the song were just as sad sounding as her appearance, which lead Corrin to take her hand, which brought her singing to a halt, and brought a look of surprise upon her face. "Corrin?" She asked, her accent was definitely Hoshidan, though her words had been Nohrian.

"Azura… you seem so sad." He said, calmly.

She looked away, "I'm…" she paused, shaking her head. "I'm not."

"That's a clear lie, and you can't fool me with it— I've lived my life around liars and cheats" Corrin said, almost angrily, "Something has you upset." He said, before pausing, softening his expression, "Is it… what you do for the Hoshidan Imperial Family?" He asked, turning to look her in the eyes, "I can tell you're a courtesan by trade, and are beautiful, as is your voice, but…"

"It's not by trade" Azura paused, uneasily matching Corrin's eyes, but then looked away. His hand on her shoulder gave a light squeeze, and she hung her head low. "I'm Nohrian, taken from my home and forced to give comfort to Hoshidan guests," she half whispered, half mumbled.

"What?" Corrin's brow furrowed, and eyes widened with a sense of sickened shock, "that's terrible."

"It doesn't matter to anyone," Azura said, somehow unable to hold herself back in his presence. "All the times I've been taken for some man's pleasure, I can't keep track, and no one thinks about me, that's the way I've always been." She felt Corrin's hand upon her face, his thumb hanging just beneath her eye, as he gently wiped away a tear. "Just use me like the others, I don't care."

"I wouldn't dare." Corrin said firmly. "How long has this been going on?"

"Since I was little. I only remember bits and pieces of my childhood. The days before the Hoshidan army attacked, killed my father, and took me to be this disgusting servant in their palace."

"Gods…" Corrin pulled Azura into his arms. "I'm so sorry. This kind of thing shouldn't happen, not at all, not to anyone." She mumbled under her breath, something that Corrin couldn't understand, though the words sounded Hoshidan to his ear, this mumble was met soon by a soft, soundless cry.

"Corrin…" Azura whispered after a few moments, "May I still stay with you tonight? I will be seen as a failure to the Royal Family were I not able to please you, and I trust not their spies."

"If that can help you," Corrin responded falling back onto the roll, "then by all means, Azura."

"Thank you, Corrin…" she said, turning away from him, and to his surprise, undid the obi holding her Yukata on.

"But I don't want to…" Corrin choked as he saw Azura's actions, "do that." He said with a mild stutter.

"Pay no mind, I must… to at least appear as if I gave my services." Azura said, covering herself with one of the blankets. "I know not who watches through the paper walls."

Corrin's face had begun to glow a fiery red, as he turned away from Azura, and rest his chin on his forehand, "…Azura… I'm returning you to Nohr." He said, "When my trip here is at its end, meet me at my quarters. I will send for you, and I will take you with me, back to Windmire. I promise you this."

"I…" Azura hesitated, "don't believe I could join you."

"Why not?" Corrin asked, as he sat down with his brief case, and a notebook.

"The Hoshidans will not allow me to leave," she answered shaking her head. "Besides, I'm not sure…"

"So, you'd rather stay here, where you're…" Corrin asked, turning back, and shrugging his shoulders for a moment while he overlooked a Hoshidan newspaper that read "FLEET CEREMONY! JULY 6th!" A picture of a Hoshidan Sailor was on the newspaper's page, which listed some minor details about a coming festival to be held in honor of the Hoshidan navy, and listed a page number, of which Corrin had turned to. His eyes scanned the paper, picking up what he could garner of the event, and before he realized it, he found himself yawning, the strange uneasiness having vanished entirely from his mind.

"Feel free to sleep, I will be here…" Azura said, looking over at Corrin, whom she could visibly see the tiredness creep onto his face. He nodded and rose from the bed roll, turning out the light and the radio. The room grew dim and quiet immediately, as he laid back down, keeping a respectful distance from Azura, but still laid upon the roll. The sun's last rays that could pierce the oaken canopy and shoji faded, the ambience remaining the ever-present bubbling of the water and the periodic chirp of crickets outside. A few distant footsteps in the palace and Azura's breathing were the only other sounds. Corrin closed his eyes, but before he found sleep's embrace, he heard Azura roll over to face him. She said something softly in Hoshidan, but he couldn't quite translate it at that moment.

_Location: Shirasagi Harbor, Shirasagi_  
_Date: 6th Of July; Hoshido Fleet Celebration Day_  
_Time: 20:11 Local_

Much to his content surprise, Corrin had a rather surprisingly stress-free day. He had a calm night's rest, despite the embarrassment present from Azura's presence, and talks with the Hoshidan Prime Minister and Empress Mikoto went, much to his surprise, exceptionally well, despite Prince Ryoma's absence. Trade talks stalled out due to various details that Corrin could not account for, however, it seemed that the Empress was extremely interested in striking a deal, even though the Prime Minister seemed distant and almost completely on edge while speaking with him, a fact that Corrin would attribute to his Nohrian heritage, and rather justifiable suspicions.

He smiled as he walked down the stone ramp from the conference building he had spent the last several hours in, while discussing all matters from the grandiose and critical issues like trade, to the mundane, such as what he wanted to eat for lunch. The Empress, however, insisted on his attendance at a function at the Port, the event being none other than the Fleet Ceremony, which he had read lightly about during the previous night. He had, at her request, dressed himself in a Hoshidan garb, more traditional in design as opposed to the Nohrian suit-and-tie he had been wearing. The garb was a man's Yukata, pure white in color, made of silk, serving as a coat around a blue and gold wrapping that encased his torso, while he wore a white hakama to cover his legs. He wore black socks stretched thin around his feet and ran halfway up his shins; as well as traditional wooden clogs. A scarlet silk cape loosely wrapped around his neck, and covering his shoulders topped off his garb. Personally, he had found it to be overbearing and slightly uncomfortable underneath the Hoshidan sun, but as evening had progressed, he found himself enjoying the silk garb.

A festive atmosphere was laid out before him, the air smelled of exotic spices and flame-and-oil seared meat and vegetables. A hint of alcohol added to the aroma, while the fizzle of gunpowder wafted in, from the bursts of fireworks overhead. It was nothing, if not colorful; the Port had traditional-designed red archways along paths leading into the docks, and stalls as far as he could see, all adorned with various banners while colored paper lanterns hung on wires strung about over walkways. There was a large amount of people all wearing similar dress to his own, most of it in bold vibrant colors. A few soldiers in traditional Hoshidan Guard uniforms, holding bayonetted rifles vertically at their shoulders stood out among the crowd, as did a handful of Hoshidan naval officers, most of whom were gathered around a covered dining area, eating bowls full of a steaming curry. Perhaps of note only to him was a woman with long black hair, with two shorter pigtails by her ears, sitting at a table near his own location, her face gloomy and almost perturbed as she threw a glance in Corrin's direction. Across from her sat a pink-haired and blue-eyed woman who upon seeing her glance at Corrin, winced jealously before leaning herself across the table to place a kiss upon the dark-haired woman's cheek, which drew back the latter's attention. The mood was strikingly jovial from his observations, though, being a Nohrian, he found it somewhat awkward. He sat down at an empty table near a stall, taking a moment off his feet, and looked out towards the sea. Deep oranges bounced off the waves, and the gray and red hulls of the Hoshidan warships further out in the harbor. Corrin couldn't fully identify them, though, one battleship with a towering mast, at least 130 feet in height caught his eye, causing him to question its design; while there were several other ships out there, such as an aircraft carrier that seemed half-built, sitting at a dock while cranes and barges surround it and several other vessels of diverse sizes. Even the ships were decorated for the event, with their rigging featuring strings of lights that cast golden orange reflections on the darkening water.

Perhaps more of note, was the large bamboo wall alongside one dock, blocking view of something that sat there, something massive, a ship of some kind, Corrin figured. The bamboo rose up nearly two hundred feet, taller even than that of the battleship out at port. The wall was also long, over a thousand feet in length. A massive gap stood between the festive area and this bamboo structure, while ropes seemed to connect it to a raised stone stage at the center of the festival grounds. Remnants of scaffolding and shipbuilding equipment were scattered about near the wall, and there were several armed guards near the lone walkway leading up to it. There was something special about that, Corrin assumed, as he turned and waved at a young Hoshidan woman he saw walking up to him.

The noise of a few planes over head caught Corrin's attention, and he looked up to see a formation of seven Hoshidan fighters fly by, flickers of flame escaping their exhaust underneath the engine cowling as they flew by, then pulled upward into a steep climb trailing smoke and then broke formation, flying in directions that created a flower like pattern in the sky when the planes had regrouped. A wave of fireworks was launched from the battleship, illuminating the sky with a brilliant flash of dazzling colors as the shells burst in air. At that time, a group of Hoshidan musicians took to the large stone stage, as Empress Mikoto began walking up the stone steps. The song played was using traditional Hoshidan instruments and much faster than most Nohrian music that he had heard. A group of girls sang and danced with the music, their outfits ceremonial: white-and-red kimonos, though, at the distance from which Corrin watched them, he could not make out much of their appearance.

"_A Fleet Maiden Comes Forth  
__In order to Protect You  
__Swinging and Swaying,  
__Let's Show them Hoshido's Spirit!" _

The song was sung as fast as the beat rang out, and Corrin found himself entranced with watching the performance, unaware of the Hoshidan official approaching him from behind. It wasn't until the man had placed his hand upon Corrin's shoulder that had turned Corrin's attention.

"Sir Corrin of Nohr? Her majesty the Empress wishes your presence upon the stage." The man said swiftly, guiding Corrin forward, up towards the same stone steps he had seen Mikoto climb earlier. Corrin nodded and began walking with the man, nodding at the soldiers who stepped out of the way when they saw him and the official approaching.

"_Show your Resolve when battle comes  
__Let there be meetings and farewells  
__To cry and laugh, to love and to hate  
__Surely that is a maiden!"_

The song had continued on, only broken by the percussion of the fireworks and another pass by from the fighters. The four women singing the song were clearer in view, their dress not as traditional as Corrin had thought, it was a short black skirt, thigh-high boots, the top of a Shrine Maiden's kimono, though was shoulderless; white over red, and they all had golden headbands. Laced around their hands were red ribbons which flowed freely in the humid air as they danced.

"_Like the approaching waves  
__My feelings grow ever stronger  
__Soar messenger, Lightning Attack! Lightning Attack! Lightning Attack!  
__Though the skies are clear, and the waves high,  
__A maiden may be devastated in this battle!  
So I press on despite my wavering feelings  
Ever climbing to Prism's height  
And launch my Centrifugal Offensive  
When I see my foe asleep without guard"_

Mikoto, on the other hand, was dressed formally, a long flowing white-silk dress, adorned in teal ribbons, with a gold and teal floral pattern with the crest of Hoshido upon her shoulders. The Empress's hair was done up with a golden sun-shaped headdress, while her bangs were clipped with ornate diamond-and-emerald hair clips that had the same matching floral pattern as her dress. She held a long rod wrought of ivory and gold, holding in its center a large pearl that reflected the light of the torches that surrounded the stage in her left hand, while in her right was a small, ornate silver axe. She beamed at Corrin as he rose to the top of the flight of stairs, before turning to a wooden post that held several ropes connected to the bamboo wall and raising the axe high.

"_Hark! A Fleet Maiden Comes Forth  
__To Fight for you  
E__ven a brilliant blooming flower  
__Will eventually fall!  
__Hark! A Fleet Maiden Comes Forth  
__I shall protect you  
__Swaying over the sea  
__Live on and become a demon to protect the homeland!"_

The music faded, and the dancing stopped as several searchlights turned and focused on the stage. Then, a man spoke, "Listen well, Hoshidans! The Empress speaks!" His words echoed across the harbor, and everything fell silent. Only the sound of the waves and the distant hum of aircraft engines remained in the air.

"People of Hoshido, know that while war is not our way, that our enemies still lurk upon our borders. Every day, the conflict with Mokusho grows worse, and my heart hangs heavy. However, it is not without comfort that in this land, there are still a many miracle to be seen." She said without turning back to face the crowd. "The miracle of birth, the joys of life. The beauty of our land, Hoshido, it is knowing these things are worthy of protecting that I cast forth our blade, forged by the Fire Tribe, the newest vessel in the Hoshidan Navy, the _Fujinkyu_!" With her words, she brought the axe down upon the pillar, cleaving apart the hempen ropes that had held fast to it. With that, the bamboo wall fell, section by section down to the sea. A wide splash of seawater rose over the festival area, dousing the cloth-covered stalls, and sending forth a misty spray that rolled into the crowd.

Corrin's eyes widened as he saw the ship that was now revealed. It was a battleship, and truly massive. It had a bulbous design, bulging from a far narrower bow, which on its center was the same floral crest as present on Mikoto's dress. It had nine guns, in three triple turrets, and even at this distance, Corrin could hardly believe how massive they were, at least as large, if not larger than, which Corrin guessed, those of the new _Dragonfall_-class Battleships that Nohr was in possession of. Two of these batteries were placed forward of the towering superstructure of the vessel, and behind them was another battery, almost lifted straight from one of the light cruisers that sat out at port, though far smaller in caliber than the massive main battery, it made the impressive warship seem even more intimidating. A smattering of smaller guns in their own armored gun houses adorned the sides of the superstructure, including two more of the three-gun light battery. At her stern sat the third and final main gun emplacement, it pointed straight aft, towards a steel flight deck and elevator, upon which stood two catapults already loaded with two monoplane seaplanes, as well as two recovery hooks, and even more lighter gun emplacements. The towering gray superstructure at the vessel's center was somewhat circular in construction, and completely unlike the other Hoshidan Battleships and Battlecruisers, save for its height: it towered almost as tall as the bamboo, and Corrin was actually surprised it hadn't been peeking over the wall. The gigantic tower was topped by a huge rangefinder that had had several antennae along it, and its design gave the clear impression of being looked at by some kind of god, and all Corrin could do was stare, almost helplessly before the sight of Hoshido's steel monster.

"Impressed, foreigner?" A shrewd sounding man said from behind, "She's the second _Hikariryu-_class Battleship, and the word I'd use to describe her is 'Invincible', for her armor cannot be defeated, and as you can see, she's absolutely bristling with firepower: her 460mm main cannon are larger than any other in the world. She is a testament to the ingenuity of the Flame Tribe and the power of Hoshido."

Corrin looked back at the man, an elderly looking Hoshidan, not wearing a festival garb, and instead presented himself in a business suit that was not unlike Corrin's Nohrian clothing. Beside him was a darker-skinned woman with fierce red eyes, and strikingly white hair, not unlike his own, a quick look over her would suggest that she was strong, though Corrin had a mind to second guess that assumption. She wore a loose-fitting suit, not unlike the other man upon the stage. Along with her suit, she had fiercely red hair inserts behind her head.

The strong-looking woman extended her hand to Corrin, who shook it with a nod. "I'm Rinkah, of the Flame Tribe, I'm here to oversee the commissioning of the _Fujinkyu._" She said, letting her hand fall back to her side, "You must be the diplomat from Nohr. Impressed with our ship?"

Corrin nodded, and nervously responded, "It's… impressive, though I might use other words to describe it. Surely such a vessel isn't needed for defense."

"If you say that to prevent ships like this from being built, you'll get nowhere, foreigner," The elderly man said. "The Pride of Hoshido cannot be broken, nor can her resolve."

"Nevertheless, I pray it will serve your purposes well. I just hope that my dealings with Empress Mikoto can bring an era of peace, where vessels such as the _Fujinkyu _or Nohr's _Brynhildr_ don't need to be used." Corrin said, nodding at the man.

"And on this auspicious day," Mikoto spoke up once more, walking over to Corrin, "it has seemed fate has given us the honor of returning our beloved Prince Kamui to us!"

If Corrin hadn't been awestruck by the battleship, his heart surely halted at those words. He turned, with the most wide-eyed look of shock upon his face that he thought he ever had in his life, as he looked at Mikoto. "Surely you don't mean me, do you, your majesty?"

"I do, my son." Mikoto said softly, pulling Corrin into a tight hug. "It's been so long… I thought you were dead, but in my heart, I always knew you were alive." Her voice cracked as she squeezed Corrin, and it was at that moment, he realized she was crying. "And now you've been returned to us."

If it was a ruse, Corrin figured, it was far too genuine, for this world leader to be crying before her people, and that struck him as if a bolt of lightning had descended from the blue to smite him and his heart. Almost immediately, he felt dizzy and faint. "M…mother…" he said shakily.

"What is it, my son?" Mikoto asked, kneeling down as Corrin seemed to force himself lower. Behind them, all of the guests, civilian and soldier alike took a bow, dropping to their knees to match the Empress.

"I… I just want to go lay down." Corrin said, dryly. "I need to think about a few things…"

"Of course," she said, rising along with him, before looking over at a guard. "See to it that Prince Kamui is returned to his room, and if he asks for anything, consider it a request from your Empress."

The man bowed before rendering a salute. He walked over to Corrin and took his hand. "Come with me, sir," he said, walking Corrin down the stone steps and then ordering a soldier to retrieve a vehicle with which to return Corrin to the palace.

"Hey…" Corrin said lightly. "Can you send for Azura? I'd like to spend some time with her again."

"Of course, Prince Kamui. She is kept in the palace to serve," the man responded as a black car pulled up before them. "I will have her be present at your room at once, and Prince, if there are any further needs, just let us know."

The car ride back to the palace was silent, none saying a word until they reached the palace yard, and brought the car to a halt, its wheels screeching from the brakes despite the low speed. Behind them, the fireworks had resumed, and the distant sound of Hoshidan instruments was playing, above, stars were shining in the blacks of night. Two maidservants guided Corrin to the same room he had stayed in the night before, in which he sat down, pulling out his papers and the radio he had brought. He tuned it to a frequency he was long familiar with, hoping the signal was global, however what he heard was not the comforting sound of music, nor a rallying time from a ball game, and not even the ambient sounds of static.

What he heard, stabbed him in the heart. "This morning, Hoshido struck the Sevenfold Sanctuary islands. Formal Declaration of War upon Nohr has recently arrived by telegram. This comes as a surprise after months of talks for trade deals had been spent between the two nations' leaders. Hoshidan fighters attacked the fleet anchorage at Sevenfold. We do not have greater information at this time." The news report said coldly. Corrin grabbed his head and let out a scream, digging his nails into his scalp. "People of Nohr, we are officially at War."

There was a knock at his door and then a muffled cry, as it opened. Standing in the door was a man in a military uniform that did not fit, older, his hair grayed, and he was holding Azura at gunpoint.

"Master Sergeant?" Corrin asked as he stood up looking the man in the eyes before turning his gaze to Azura.

The man nodded, "Good to see you well, Corrin. I heard you scream and saw this woman lurking near your room."

"Pay her no mind and enter." Corrin said, "She's Azura, and… I'll leave her story out of it, but I asked her to come tonight."

"Courtesan?" the Master Sergeant said, lowering his weapon and letting go of Azura, "I did not take you to be such a man, Corrin."

"I assume since you're here…" Corrin said shaking his head. "What I just heard on the radio… isn't false. Gods, how could I have failed so miserably? And… is Camilla safe?"

"Indeed, it's correct. I just received orders from General Xander to retrieve you at once, sir," he answered. "And I wish I could tell you, but…" he breathed deeply, "I just don't know right now. Reports are that the damage… is extensive. The only ray of sunshine I can offer to you is that the _Queen Arete_ was out to sea when the assault occurred."

"Thank you, Gunther." Corrin said with a nod. "How could it come to this? No, I suppose, it's too late for that now. It's just… what do I do now?" His face still curled into a look of despair, as everything he had hoped for had gone up in flames: his hopes for peace, dashed by the squeeze of a trigger, sounding the coming of war. The fact that he had been reunited with his birth mother perhaps was hope, but now it all seemed so pointless. "Answer me, I… I wanted peace. I just… Gods, Gunther… I… I don't know what to do!" Corrin's face was streaked by tears, and his eyes were bloodshot; his breathing heavy and his right hand shook uncontrollably, having dropped the portable radio. His eyes glanced towards the pillow, pulling it back and revealing the location of the pistol he had placed the evening before.

"We return to Nohr. It is no longer safe for you to remain in Hoshido." Gunther responded sharply. "We travel by night and escape the country by plane. General Xander has readied an escape for us. Lilith and Flora are on standby. The only thing I ask, did Mikoto accept her present?"

"She did." Corrin said, solemnly, before turning to Azura. "Azura, I… I want you to come with us. The life you've been forced to live is far too cruel, and I don't wish to see you suffer from it for one moment longer."

She looked down, and said something he did not make out, before turning her head back up and looking Corrin in the eyes, "Lord Kamui, I will do as you ask."

"No, not for me." Corrin said, his chest rising, "For you. …After knowing what happened to you, I can't just leave you like you've been. And now, as you've heard, Nohr and Hoshido are… at war. I fear you'll be killed. Gods, they've already taken so much from you, I can't just leave and let you…"

She nodded, and without saying a word, took hold of Corrin's hand, as they walked back out of the palace, and climbed into the same car that Corrin had returned in. Sitting in the passenger seat was another woman, her hair pink, and she wore a dainty-looking flapper's outfit, ever so slightly tweaked to her liking, and in front of her was a long white apron. If anyone looked out of place in Hoshido, it was her, and she knew it.

"I kept the car running, Gunther and Corrin." The woman said, "and nothing else happened."

"Great job Felicia." Corrin said, as he squeezed into the car, sitting beside Azura, lightly holding her hand as they sped off into the night. However, looking back, it wasn't just the news that Hoshido had attacked Nohr that was putting an entirely ill-at-ease feeling into Corrin's heart, it was something else. "Gunther… what was the present, exactly?"

"A bomb." Gunther casually answered. "It was to be remotely fused."

And for a third time in the past half-hour, Corrin's heart stopped.

* * *

**Weapon Profile:  
_Hikariryu-class Battleship (Raijinto, Fujinkyu, Yatogami)  
_**Designation: Superbattleship  
Weight: 76,808 Tons  
Length: 864 Feet  
Beam: 128 Feet  
Height: 187 Feet, 11 Inches  
Draft: 35 Feet

Armament:  
Main Battery: 3 Turrets, 3 Guns each. Caliber: 18.1 Inches  
Maximum Range: 22.6 Nautical Miles  
Fire Control System: Visual Only. No Radar capability.  
Secondary Battery: 4 Turrets, 3 Guns each. Caliber: 6 Inches.  
Anti-Aircraft Artillery:  
12 x2 Coaxial Guns, Caliber: 5 Inch  
52 Triple Barrel Autocannons. Caliber: 25mm

Armor:  
Main Belt: 11 to 16 Inches  
Main Turrets: 7 to 26 Inches  
Conning Tower: 12 to 20 Inches

Power:  
4 Boilers, 4 Turbines. 153,000 Shaft Horsepower  
Maximum Speed: 27.4 Knots  
Range: 7200 Nautical Miles at 16 Knots

Crew: 153 Officers; 2648 Enlisted  
Air Group: 7: 3 Floatplane Fighters, 4 Floatplane Observation Aircraft

* * *

**Author's Note: ** Yes, that's Yamato, in a hybrid of it's 1941 and 1943 Configurations where it kept the 6 inch guns on her sides. Also, "Lightning Attack"? "Tora, Tora, Tora", or more accurately, "ToRa ToRa ToRa!" **To**tsugeki **Ra**igeki, or Lightning Attack; In reference to the rapid and surprising nature of the assault. Yes, that was the Conquest version of Lost In Thoughts, meanwhile, if you know the other song, congratulations. If you don't, just pick up on the Pearl Harbor references.

Yeah, I did mess with Azura's backstory. That was very intentional. Actually, there's a lot of changes needed to darken Hoshido here beyond the evident "they sacked Nohr's shit", they're really actually in canon extremely far away from an WWII Japan stuff, contrary to some belief.

Anyways, Reads/Reviews well appreciated.


	4. Chapter 3: The Sun's Reach

**Chapter 3: The Sun's Reach**

* * *

"_Let your plans be as dark and impenetrable as the night. When you do move, fall as swiftly as the thunderbolt. Give no warning for your strike. Catch your foe without guard, for that is the time to strike."  
-A Famed Tactician._

There was no battle in the war more analyzed than the first battle of the Sevenfold Sanctuary. The battle went by many names, such as the "First Battle", the "Infamous Battle", "The Attack on the Sanctuary", and the "Sevenfold Massacre". It was the first major act of hostilities, and the opening act of the war. While referred to as a battle, it was in many ways, a one-sided slaughter. The failures of Nohr were well documented, as were the successes of Hoshido. Regardless, it would earn its place in history as a bloody stain that forced open the jaws of war.

_Location: Flagship Raijinto, 315 Nautical Miles from the Sevenfold Sanctuary_  
_Date: 6th Of July, Start of Hostilities_  
_Time: 04:04 Local_

Yukimura, the famed Hoshidan strategist rubbed his lightly bearded chin, and then readjusted his glasses. He looked at a map that had been unfurled in front of him and then secured beneath a glass panel, as he and two other Hoshidan officers held wax pencils. The map had several layers, giving lay out of the coast, depth of the ocean around the Islands, and already drawn onto the glass pane was a rough estimation of the clouds and wind directions. Another man was talking over a radio in the corner of the darkened room as the great warship steamed ahead. The red lights, which sat in the low overhead, were all that gave illumination in the room, as tensions sat high.

"Report from the Submarines, sir," the man on the phone said, "The Nohrians have no Carriers in port. Initial reports suggest that the _Queen Arete_ should be there, but there's no evidence of her presence. We suspect she may be lurking off the coast."

"Find that Carrier." Yukimura snapped, his eyes widening at the news, his stern expression now a distinct look of worry, "That must be done at once."

"What of their battleships?" Another man asked, turning towards the man who held the Radio handset.

"Four in port, including their flagship, the _Aurgelmir_", the man answered.

"Air power?"

"Insufficient, sir. They have only a few airfields, and their fighters are still the outdated foes we're used to facing."

"Do the scouting subs have any other information?"

"Negative, sir."

"It doesn't matter if we crush their Battleships, with that Carrier out to sea, I fear we will not deliver a sufficient strike. There was a reason I chose to have our Carriers carry out this strike: It is the edge of our blade," Yukimura spoke up, his voice softening, "However, we are sufficiently close as to draw the attention of the Nohrian defenses. I will think on this." He looked up from the map, marking several Xs on the glass sheet. "Give the word. Stick to the clouds until the last minute." He drew a dotted line, from the Xs he had drawn towards the islands, and particularly towards a large cove where the Nohrian fleet anchorage was located. "The first blow will be strong, hard and simple. Regardless of the Carrier's location, we deliver a mortal wound upon Nohr's Fleet," He said, shifting his gaze to the left, "Now that we have arrived, there can be no hesitation, though I fear we waken a beast as fierce as a First Dragon."

"Admiral?" The man who had previously asked about the Nohrian Battleships asked, turning towards the sound-powered phone that sat in the darkened room.

"It is time, Captain. Climb to Mount Prism's heights and give purpose to the name of this ship." Yukimura said, his voice low, but strong.

"Proceed with the invasion as well?"

"While I doubt the Raijinto and Fujinkyu are as invincible as the Flame Tribe may suggest, with the might of this battleship, I do believe we shall." Yukimura nodded and looked at all of the men in the room. "The first wave shall be airborne by not later than 06:00." Each nodded, and then sirens rang out across the ship.

_Location: Carrier Kinnaginata, 315 Nautical Miles from the Sevenfold Sanctuary_  
_Date: 6th Of July, Start of Hostilities_  
_Time: 04:52 Local_

A female pilot, with a wicked-looking X shaped scar upon her aging face, and long deep blue hair smirked as the General Quarters alarmed through the vessel. She seemed to exude a near jubilant air of bloodlust as she walked past the scurrying Hoshidan sailors as she made her way to her plane.

"Finally… I've waited far too long. It's time to kill…" she muttered sadistically as she looked at the white and red-colored fighter. It had two dark blue stripes running diagonally across the wings, leading from the auto cannon barrels to the end of the wing on each side. A pristine and freshly painted roundel showing the crest of Hoshido was on each, and a few cherry blossom petals were painted onto the fuselage, below the canopy. Forward of the canopy, beside the cowling were six marks, roundels of the Mokusho, and four bombs, indicating her six air to air kills and four successful bombing sorties. Beneath the wings hung two bombs, rounded noses with altitude-armed spinner fuses, and four fins.

The woman's lips curled into a strikingly sharp smile as she turned and climbed into the plane while a hoist moved it towards an elevator that would lift it from the hangar up to the flight deck. Before the plane was moved back, a sailor looked up and gave the woman a thumbs up signal. "Plane is ready to go, Lady Reina."

"Good, however unfortunate it is that I cannot hear my foes' screams from here." She laughed as she began closing the cockpit's glass. Her plane was joined by three others on the elevator, which lurched before making its slow and steady lift to the flight deck of the carrier. The rising sun in the distance painted the early morning sky blood red, as dark, heavy clouds hung in the distance. Lightning flashed between them and the surface of the sea, while the target, the Sevenfold Islands were beyond sight. Overhead, a group of planes climbed into formation, their paths long and circular. Not far from the _Kinnaginata_ were several other carriers, and no less than three battleships. The massive flagship, the _Hikariryu-class_ _Raijinto_ was in the middle of the group, while several smaller vessels surrounded it. The Hoshidan flag hung high from all the vessels' masts, blowing lightly in the wind, while the smoke and soot from the ships' boilers rolled out along the surface and into the sky.

The air smelt of salt and soot, while the sounds of the aircraft engines filled the air. Hoshidan sailors scurried precisely about on the deck, confirming each plane, while they started their take off runs. One man, in blue coveralls ran out before Reina's aircraft, placing chocks on the wheels, and giving a hand signal to start the engine. Reina nodded at the man, turning the ignition switch and a crank in the cockpit. The rumble of the engine began, and it began spinning. The prop turned steadily becoming nothing but a barely-visible blur in her vision, while she adjusted the gun sight.

A series of lights on the carrier's island change to red, while the man retrieved the chocks, and gave her an affirmative signal. Another light lit, followed by another, and when they turned green, Reina's aircraft began its rapid, bouncy march down the deck of the carrier. It gained speed, and leapt into the air, rising over the sea, and over the mast of a destroyer. She put the plane into a circular climb, joining in the attack formation. Alongside her, several other fighters of the same kind as hers, while slower bomber aircraft carrying heavier bombs and torpedoes began their own flights. The Hoshidan Navy had hundreds of aircraft airborne, and soon, she smirked at the thought, they'd fly into a slaughter. Nohr would burn. At altitude, clouds were still thick in the sky, though the sun's position left things a more lavender orange than the blood red at the surface. An unfitting backdrop for the attack, she thought glancing around.

"Captain Reina!" a sharp, energetic man's voice came up on the radio as another aircraft pulled up alongside her own. It had different markings. Its body was still white, but the reds were gone, replaced with a royal purple. Black lines marked the plane where on hers was blue. The only other commonality in coloration, though not craft type, both were the same kind of plane, was the Hoshidan Roundel. The pilot of the other squadron, and other carrier's aircraft looked over at the woman.

"Hinata." Reina said smoothly. "We're heading into the delights of real combat. This isn't like facing other whelps at home. Steel your mind and ready your blade."

"Right." The man said back, turning his plane, to keep direction with his squadron. Reina followed suit, her formation turning into the climb just as well. "Though, does it matter? It's not like the Nohrians can defeat our fighters."

"Just keep your head about you, and savor this." Reina responded, "Fly blindly and even you can crash."

"Of course," Hinata acknowledged, "But I'm the toughest slice around."

Reina shook her head, as the planes made one last circular turn. "Radio silence from here until we arrive. Fall as the thunderbolt in the dead of night."

"Right." Hinata added, and turned his plane once more, the squadrons leveling out. Ahead were groupings of fighters and bombers. Just forward was a flight of twelve bombers, all having black and gold engine cowlings that did not protrude from their fuselages and had fixed landing gear on their wings. Each plane had a crew of two and was carrying three bombs each. Two of the same kind mounted to the wings of fighters, and one larger one, all underneath the fuselage. Beside them was a group of larger green bombers. Some were carrying torpedoes, their tailfins with long wooden stabilizers, while others were carrying pairs of large bombs, or a rack of smaller ones. The formation broke into a cloud bank, continuing on their attack vector, the wind carrying droplets of water through the air as it ripped past the aircraft, drenching the cockpit glass in spray. It was dark and silent as the Hoshidans made their approach. Only the sounds of the engines, the propellers, and the wind outside broke through that silence.

_Location: Sevenfold Sanctuary Islands, Westernmost island of the Chain, Nohrian Airbase_  
_Date: 6th Of July, Start of Hostilities_  
_Time: 04:41 Local_

The young-looking pilot sat up from his cold hard bed and brushed back his hair. With a yawn, he looked at the folder that had been placed upon his bed when the wake-up call had arrived. Basic sortie orders, and a time for a briefing. He sighed, rubbing his eyes, and adjusting himself to the cold electric light of the fluorescent lighting above. He sat down at his desk, moving aside the pile of comic books he had sitting there, and slid the folder over to himself. With a yawn, he opened it, and slowly began reading.

"Sortie today, transport of updated version of Ascender Aircraft, P-55D by Sol, Luna and Astra squadrons and civil escort of heavy bombers to Sevenfold Sanctuary Main Naval Port, Auxiliary field." The summary of the orders read. The far more complicated flight plan and orders authorization, as well as secondary details covering the object of the activity were listed below in a monotype face, which left the pilot finding it was far too early, and he had far too little coffee to get going. It was far less interesting than the comic books, he thought for a moment as he stood up, stretching his arms, and sliding himself into his flight uniform: the arrival of the planes wasn't to occur until 13:45, but he knew it was time to get going. He took a look over at a glass cage, in which sat a black lizard with a red stripe on its face, which blinked lazily at the pilot.

"Sorry to wake you, Ace." He said, as he finished getting dressed and walked out the door, heading down the hall towards the mess hall where he'd grab something to eat before the briefing at 05:30. The hallway was dimly lit, and outside the sun was hardly risen, obscured by the mountain on the side of the island and the dark storm clouds, so no real natural light was getting in, just more of the cold fluorescents that lined the base. Outside the window, though, under the artificial light, he could make out a few of the heavy bombers: large four-engined behemoths, with notably tall and round tails. Their cockpits angular, jutting up above the top of the planes' noses, which housed a glass chin, though armed with guns that jutted forth from the glass. Two ball turrets, one below and above the fuselage made for the aircraft's defenses, and every one of them was absolutely bristling with guns. A few men lazily stood beside the hangars, the light from their lit cigarettes plainly visible before the dark backdrop of the dawn. A couple uniformed men sat in an open-top vehicle with portable radios and looked to be conducting some kind of morning check, while one wrote on a sheet of paper affixed to a clipboard. A fair distance away— two miles as the crow flies, stood the Nohrian base's control tower, atop which a lit beacon rotated, occasionally splashing the area with a bright flash, similar to that of a lighthouse of old, casting shadows on the wall like a thunderbolt would.

A couple men down the hall laughed at something, a joke perhaps, as he continued to walk towards the mess hall. Hearing the laughter naturally made him smile, and he lightly increased his pace towards the laughter. The two men's chuckling stopped, and one knelt down helping someone just out of view to their feet before turning away and walking down the hallway in his direction. They stopped as they got close, and popped into salutes, which he returned, with a simple "Good morning."

"Good morning, sir!" one of the two men, a tall blonde man with a sharp looking moustache on his face said, his tone not matching his arrogant looking expression that was revealed in his sharp green eyes as he walked past. After they had passed with dropped salutes, he heard the man say to his comrade, "That Lieutenant Percy, can't believe we're outranked by a kid."

The comment made him laugh, as he continued, "If you want to try it in the sky, you're welcome to." He called back. In front of him, however was a woman, she was about a foot taller than he was, and like him, had a very youthful countenance. Her silvered, platinum blonde hair was brushed into a fine flared look, which rolled forward around her ears. She was brushing herself off and shaking her head. On her collar was a single silver bar. She turned her head and smiled at Percy's approach. "Heya, Sophie!"

"Oh, good morning, Percy!" the woman said, nodding at him.

"Good morning to you, too." Percy said, "You get woken up for the escort mission today too?"

"Yeah. We're taking our model Ds to the main base, right?" Sophie asked, straightening her uniform.

"Yeah, I haven't fully read the orders yet, but that looked like the most of it." He answered, "I'm going to go get breakfast before the briefing, have to feed Ace too."

"I'll join you." Sophie said smiling as she turned around. "Haven't gotten anything myself either."

"Hey, what was that about with the two Corporals a moment ago?" He asked as they fell into step, turning at the end of the hallway, and up a ladder well.

"I… fell." Sophie shook her head, her face blushing from embarrassment, as she raised her left hand to her head and her right to her chest.

"Didn't wind up naked or wind up having anyone else become naked at the least, right?" Percy said, his voice clearly stifling a laugh, as they rounded a turn and he opened a door before them into the Wardroom mess.

"I can't… say that." Sophie said under her breath.

"Ok, you've said enough." Percy laughed, as they walked up to an open buffet-styled table, grabbing trays from a stack. "Did you read any more of our orders than the front page?"

"Yeah, apparently the planes are to arrive fully armed, which I'm confused about." Sophie said.

"We're to fly them to the main base… fully armed?" Percy asked, picking up a couple pieces of bread, and a muffin.

"It's not just the fighters. The Bombers are carrying a load as well." Sophie shrugged as she placed a piece of watermelon onto her plate. "I don't get it, to be honest."

"It sure sounds strange."

"Almost as strange as a fighter squadron piloted by a bunch of children," a small dark-haired woman with a near sinister expression said as she walked up behind the two.

"You know as well as the rest of us, Nyx, that we're not kids." Sophie said, as she turned towards the kitchen where two cooks were serving up eggs, bacon, and something that looked to be like a mess of molten cheese mixed with peppers and potatoes.

"Of course," Nyx responded following her and Percy. "First Lieutenant Percy is twenty, you're nineteen, and I'm twenty-nine. But that changes none of how it looks."

"What matters is how well we handle it in the sky." Percy said, before turning to the cook, "Scrambled and sausage, please." The cook nodded and took Percy's plate for a moment while he turned back to Nyx, "And in that, we're the best Nohr has."

"Luna squadron's P-58s gave us a run for our gold during the last mock battle," Sophie said, taking back her plate, and immediately shoving a blueberry muffin into her mouth. "You were the only one left from that."

"We weren't flying model Deltas." Percy said, shaking his head, "The Elevators weren't as responsive on the original Ascenders as they are on these."

"You could wait, Sophie" Nyx slightly teased by throwing a judgmental stare at Sophie, who was eagerly scarfing the muffin. "Bacon." She said looking over at the cook.

"Schuffitneeks" Sophie slurred, as she tried to speak with a mouthful of muffin.

Percy laughed and pointed to an open end of the tables. "I still wonder why we're flying to the main base, armed no less." He said, as they walked over to their seats.

Sitting down, Sophie took a drink of milk, not caring to wipe away the white ring around her lips before speaking up, "I guess we'll find out why at the briefing."

"Maybe," Nyx said, carefully setting aside a piece of fruit and buttering a slice of toast. "We might not find out at all, might just be transporting the load as a transport, or an evaluation of full combat loading on the planes," She said, before nibbling on a slice of bacon.

"The Flying Fortress is in full production, why would they be evaluating its full combat load performance?" Percy asked, taking a drink of orange juice. "And with the model delta, our Ascenders should be ready for war." Sophie shrugged her shoulders, and Nyx sighed, as all three took bites of their various breakfasts. "I'm not going to bother asking though, it's a short flight. Only two hours."

Sophie nodded, "Yeah, it's nice and easy, but far too soon for my liking."

Location: Nohrian Fleet Anchorage, Sevenfold Sanctuary Islands  
Date: 6th Of July, Start of Hostilities  
Time: 07:01 Local

_Radar Operation Site, 15 miles from the main port_

Two men stared down at the small round display of the Radar Oscilloscope, which glowed green in the dark room, which smelled of ash, as the older of the two had been smoking. The fading embers of his cigarette fell into the ash tray as he stared at the scope. It oscillated and jostled, as the pulse spiked well above the noise, larger than either of the Radar operators had ever seen before. "That's… a lot of planes." One of the two men said, looking at the scope's return. The massive pulse on the end of the sweep was hardly moving, many miles away from the Radar site.

"Change the sensitivity, those might be clouds," the other man said and the first nodded, turning a wheel and a dial. The image on the scope did not change. "Maybe the radar isn't working right."

"RD1 certified it was working already. Do you want me to call him?"

"No, I think we're good, call the Lieutenant."

"Roger." The man said turning towards the phone and dialing a number. "Good morning Sir…"

_Laslow's Quarters_

Laslow woke to the ringing of his phone— the first call he had missed, and in the time before it rang again, he had gotten himself dressed in something a bit more comfortable than what he was wearing the night before. The sun was beginning to filter through the windows as he rolled out of his bed. Selena had joined him for the night and was asleep on the couch, her hands covering her head as she lay face down, covered loosely by a sheet and her bare feet stuck out, her legs covered by a pair of pajamas that she had brought with her, reasons Laslow didn't understand, but didn't question either.

In the front room, where Selena lay, a television was running. Its light had been flickering through the whole night, and at that moment, it was showing a silent program featuring a bouncy cat-like character, who was running away from a large man with a goofy toothy smile carrying a meat cleaver. The cat was holding a ball— a lit bomb and pulled from a pocket a black disk that he set on the ground and jumped into, tossing the bomb back and from the disk two droopy white eyes formed in the background. A flashy star appeared on the screen saying "Boom!". Sitting atop the television were a couple pictures, one of which was a woman in a revealing outfit, her hair done up in a loose ponytail, with large golden rings around her wrists, and a man with swept dark hair standing beside her, he wore a strange one-sleeved outfit and they were holding two small children. Beside that picture was another of a woman with dark hair, and a white-haired man holding her hand; they were standing in front of a decorated tree. Scrawled on the latter was a note saying, "Happy Holidays, love Lucina and Robin Lowell".

The phone continued to ring as he walked over to it and answered. "Yeeeeah… good morning? Yeah, I'm here, Odin. No, we're not doing that… it doesn't matter if Captain wants us to. Illegal order and you know it. Yes, she's here. No, gods no, I didn't. She's just drunk. Alright, alright, I'll get there. Yeah, she'll be coming."

"What was that?" Selena asked sleepily, rising from her position on the couch, and stretching her arms. "Your couch is uncomfortable as all hell."

"So sorry about that." Laslow shook his head, "That was Odin, calling to make sure we're alive. Also, Captain Camilla is mustering the squadron, something about a morale boosting event."

"Mandatory fun." Selena sighed. "I guess we have to…" she yawned shifting herself into a more upright position. "…go to it. What time?"

"Before 08:00," Laslow responded. "So… around now."

"Really?" Selena shook her head. "Not even enough time to freshen up."

"Guess not. Odin did say Camilla said there would be food at the least." Laslow said, turning towards the door.

"Well at least we've got that, and I hope they don't mind me being in my nightclothes," Selena shook her head.

"You seem like you're in a better mood this morning," Laslow said with a smile as he opened the door. In front of his eyes, the sun had risen above the water, and was half-split between some clouds on the horizon. The skies were still partially overcast, and the air smelled strongly of rain. In the distance, the harbor was visible through the city, ships were lined up at anchor, and the beach in the distance looked promising. It was bothersome to be up so early, and even more so to have to attend a get together first thing in the morning on a weekend with none else, but it looked, at least in his mind to be a good day. "Less drunk."

"Shut up, Laslow." Selena huffed smarmily, crossing her arms and rolling her shoulders.

Laslow laughed, "Anything for you, my ice queen." His joking attitude was immediately met with an elbow in the gut, and a piercing scowl from Selena. He sighed, shaking his head, and walked out the door towards the car. "Let's get going."

"Yeah, at least so I can slap Camilla for dragging me out here without letting us know," Selena mumbled.

_Location: Nohrian Fleet Anchorage, Sevenfold Sanctuary Islands_  
_Date: 6th Of July; Opening of Hostilities_  
_Time: 07:56 Local_

There was a serene air about the port, a distinct tranquility as soldiers and sailors milled about, carrying out morning duties, hardly caring about the goings-on outside. A storm cloud had rolled in and the surf was high, though the majority of the port was lit well by the sun. Lines of ships were moored against the multitudes of piers and docks in the harbor, with the Flagship of the fleet, the _Aurgelmir,_ proudly stood in the middle. It was an older ship, but she still bore twelve fourteen-inch guns in four triple turrets and carried numerous anti-aircraft batteries and secondary gun emplacements. It was painted in a deep, dark purple, with the tops of its tripod masts in a far lighter color, while the tops of her guns were a brilliant cherry red. Moored alongside her was the Repair ship _Rinea_, the cranes on her mast lifting a large crate up to the battleship. On the decks of _the Aurgelmir_, a few sailors sat leisurely against bulkheads, while others swept the decks. Among them, FC2 Rickard stood near the quarter deck, talking with another sailor, while also reading the day's newspaper.

None had expected, nor seen the approaching Hoshidan aircraft, and after all, it was peaceful, so none had any inkling of war. As such, when the first planes broke through the clouds, it was a dumbstruck awe amongst those on the ground as they did. Many simply turned their heads and looked on. Few words were spoken as the glistening white and red fighters appeared in sight. The only sounds were the buzzing of propellers as the first waves arrived. The first explosion as a Hoshidan bomb landed shattered the near silence. A plume of flame erupted from a dock as a patrol boat was blown into pieces. Within seconds there was a series of bells rung as panic among the Nohrians set in. A siren blared over the harbor. Seconds later, there were three deafening blasts as torpedoes found the hulls of one of the battleships. The sounds of gunfire from the attacking planes and screams from those facing the attack filled the air. Anti-aircraft weapons roared to life, desperately firing on the incoming planes. What was once a tranquil morning was now anything but.

"RETURN FIRE!" Rickard yelled, as he grabbed one of the sailors on the deck of the battleship. The man however, was already lifeless. His head bloodied, and part of his skull missing, while a piece of shrapnel protruded from his back: he had been struck down when a bomb had landed nearby, sending pieces of metal flying through the sky. Rickard's eyes widened from the horror, setting his now deceased friend's body down. "Gods dammit!" He yelled, turning to the 20mm cannon himself, and removing the safety bolt.

"FC2! I'm a better shot than you!" Another Nohrian said from behind. "Get below decks. The 5-inch batteries will need guidance."

"Right, GM1!" Rickard said, hyperventilating as he turned toward the open door. "Dogging the Door on the way in."

"Of course!" The Gunner's mate said, elevating the AA weapon and opening fire. The crack of the machine gun's fire made Rickard's ears ring as he ran into the ship, closing and with force, sealing the door behind himself as he did. There was distinct ringing as bullets struck the ship's armored bulkheads, bouncing and ricocheting as they failed to penetrate the battleship's armor. However, on the main deck, the Hoshidan attack was showing the damage it was doing. Bodies fell to the ground as bullets ripped through the air, blood dripping through cracks and gaps in the floorboards, as a fire began to burn aft of the number three turret. An explosion rocked the vessel as a bomb struck the pier, destroying a container full of ammunition, and setting fire to a fuel tanker, which spilled into the harbor, setting the water aflame. Rickard wasn't around to see the Gunner's mate fall, two 20mm cannon rounds struck him, decapitating him and removing a leg as well.

Inside the ship, sailors were running to their battle stations, still clad only in their underclothes. Sirens rang throughout the vessel, broken by various announcements across the 1 Main Circuit. "GENERAL QUARTERS! GENERAL QUARTERS! ALL HANDS MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS! ALL TRAFFIC IS UP AND FORWARD STARBOARD SIDE, DOWN AND AFT PORT. SET MATERIAL CONDITION ZEBRA. FIRE IN MAIN SPACE 33! THE VESSEL IS UNDER ATTACK BY HOSHIDAN AIRCRAFT! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! GENERAL QUARTERS! GENERAL QUARTERS!" was blasted across loudspeakers every couple moments, broken by the clattering of bells as new fires broke out in and on the ship. "FIRE FIRE FIRE! CLASS ALPHA FIRE IN AFT OF VESSEL! FIRE FIRE FIRE!" The ship was rocked by a blast from outside, and Rickard stumbled as he lost his footing, scraping open his arm along the bulkhead and twisting his foot, while a smear of blood was crudely applied behind him, and he only twisted his lip, biting back the pain, as adrenaline took hold: the 5-inch guns were needed to stop any more incoming planes.

Outside, along the pier, two firetrucks sped towards the burning harbor. Ships burned, as did buildings. Dead bodies littered the ground as bullets rained down form the swarm of aircraft. "So much destruction…" one of the fire-fighters said, as they swerved down the road, narrowly evading a strafing run by a Hoshidan plane, which instead shredded a light, canvas-topped truck behind them. The driver of the truck slumped over as blood splashed onto the windshield, while a small fire broke out beneath the vehicle. Two other Nohrians stumbled out of the back of the truck, collapsing in pools of blood. "Repair ship _Rinea_ is aflame, that's not good… we're going to have a tough time even trying to recover from this if we lose her."

"Hey, that plane!" another of the Nohrians shouted as he looked up at a group of Hoshidan fighters dive from the smoke and clouds overhead. Leading them was a fighter with blue stripes. A pair of bombs detached from the leading aircraft fell toward the Aurgelmir. One struck a turret facing and bounced way, landing in the dirt near the already crippled truck following the fire-fighters. The blast from the bomb flipped over the disabled truck, crushing two of the men who had survived the strafing attack, and were taking potshots with their rifles at the Hoshidan aircraft. The other disappeared as it struck the _Aurgelmir._ A small gout of smoke rose from beside the number two turret, just forward of the battleship's superstructure, before after about six seconds, there was a deafening blast. The sides of the Aurgelmir tore open, while flame and smoke shot out of the opened wounds in the hull of the vessel. A massive fireball shot out between the turret and the superstructure of the ship, and the whole thing lifted upwards before collapsing down in moments. The firetruck shook and shifted as the shockwave overtook it, as pieces of metal and wood rained down, battering the vehicle, breaking glass, as the sound ruptured the ears of those nearby. Blood ran down the side of the driver of the vehicle's face as he desperately fought with the controls to keep the truck on the road. The mast and conning tower of the _Aurgelmir_ collapsed onto the remains of the ship's bow, dragging the burning wreckage with it, and within seconds, the majority of the battleship— the pride of the Nohrian fleet, and Flagship of the Navy as a whole was submerged beneath blackened burning water, as a column of thick, impenetrable smoke billowed into the sky. The shockwave ripped through other vessels, and as it had cleared, masts collapsed, and guns fell silent as their operators died or collapsed. Fires were extinguished on a few as the blast stripped away the air and left a vacuum in its place- the _Rinea, _which was moored alongside the _Aurgelmir _was one such case. Shrapnel continued to fall from the sky as more sections of the sunken vessel exploded from below the harbor's waters.

Shock filled the man's face as he looked on at the horror and near instant destruction of one of the massive battleships, but it wasn't for long as the sound of a burst of gunfire from a plane became evident amongst the silent ringing in his ears. The ground burst in front of them as he grabbed his partner on the shoulder. It was too late to react, as a bullet tore through the top of the fire truck, striking the driver in the head, killing him instantly, and showering the truck's cab with blood and gore.

In front of them, a bomb landed only feet from the front of the truck, detonating just as the truck rolled over top, tossing the 60,000-pound vehicle like a twig, flipping through the air, its weight bearing down upon the truck following it.

_Rainbow Sage Highway_

Laslow squinted as his car rolled down the highway, vaguely thinking there was smoke on the horizon. "Hey, Selena… do you see smoke?" He asked as the car came to a turn that preceded a break in the lush valley. The clouds were an issue for judging if there was any smoke, but Laslow slowed the car as they approached.

"No, you nitwit. Why would there be any?" Selena barked rudely and pushing her head back down towards her chest.

"No, I think there's smoke on the horizon… like the port is on fire." Laslow said, his voice calm but shaken. "I think you need to look up." He said, stopping the car before the turn. In front of them the view was clear to the Anchorage. Columns of smoke rose throughout, unmistakably. He swallowed hard looking at the scene as an abject horror built up in the back of his mind.

Selena looked up, and her lips quivered, "Oh… my… gods…" she said, her voice shaky as she looked out at the columns of smoke. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something fly by, a white-and-red colored plane. "Look… is that a Hoshidan plane?"

"I… think so." Laslow swallowed as he quickly turned his attention back to the road as a truck rolled up towards them.

"Hey!" The driver of the truck said, his voice panicked, his eyes were wide, as he pulled his truck to a stop beside Laslow's car. "The Hoshidans are attackin', I woulddan head that way if I were ye." He said with a foreign accent. "Get outta the city."

"…So that's what's happening. Sorry to say otherwise, sir, but our friends are down there."

"And thay alraddy probably dead. Hoshidans blew up the _Aurgelmir_." The man said, "If yaw wanna go down thar an die, be my guest but don say I didn't warn ya."

"The _Aurgelmir_…? They sank the _Aurgelmir_?!" Laslow asked almost panicked, as he looked over at Selena. She shook her head in near disbelief however, she said nothing. "Well, that certainly says much. Thanks for the warning, but I'm sure we'll have to pass it by." He said looking back at the man and putting the car back into gear and flooring the accelerator. "They sank the Aurgelmir. I figure Rickard's dead, and who knows how many others." Laslow's voice was shaky, as he looked Selena in the eyes for a moment as the car raced down the highway.

"Pull off up ahead," Selena said. "At the spare hangar. Maybe there's a couple planes up there. At least there will be a phone, and some method of contacting our chain of command."

"Errr… right." Laslow said, watching the spare signage through the trees, inescapably glancing over at the columns of smoke from the burning harbor.

_Sage's Beach, about 2 miles from the main Harbor. _

Odin dropped the ball and ran at the first sight of the approaching aircraft. Captain Camilla did as well, urging pilots to get airborne: an action that was far too little, too late. Bombs struck the hangar, destroying the planes long before any got in the sky. The one that tried, had only managed 40 feet in altitude, before a Hoshidan fighter had engaged it. Bullets tore the yellow-winged fighter's wings off, and the fuselage plummeted off a cliff, splashing into the ocean below. Several of the Hoshidan aircraft buzzed overhead as they made deadly strafing passes, diving down like a hawk having spotted a rabbit, delivering a lethal barrage in doing so— men turned into little more than bloody messes of smashed meat on the ground while fires raged around them.

Odin breathed deeply as he grabbed a light machine gun from a soldier who was passing out weapons from the armory. It didn't matter if they were effective, what mattered right then and right there was fighting back, by any means. He fed the gun a belt of ammunition- 250 rounds in the box, and he knelt beside a couple of haybales as the buildings burned to the rear him. A Hoshidan plane passed by, dropping two bombs- the momentum throwing them into buildings down the street from their position: civilian residences. The plane circled high into the air, before diving to make a clear and direct strafing run on a small vehicle crewed by three Nohrians, two of which were medics.

"Gun hand don't let me down…" He swallowed hard and looked up at the fighter. "My bullets seek your soul!" he shouted, pulling the trigger letting out a blast of fire as the plane dove. Without any tracers, Odin wasn't sure of where he was firing at, only going by the sights. It wasn't until the plane rolled over that he was given any idea if the rounds had done anything. The cockpit of the plane was bloodied, and it was locked in a rolling spin, while the panicked gunner tried to bail out. Odin quickly turned the aim of the machine gun on him, killing the Hoshidan before he could get on the ground. In the distance, the downed fighter spun into the water, igniting another patch of oil as it exploded due to the forces of impact. Another explosion rocked the earth beside him, while Camilla yelled out to him. Two more Hoshidan aircraft made approaches, and while he had scored a kill with the LMG, pulling that stunt off again was unlikely.

"Odin, we've got to move!" Camilla ordered, waving for Odin to run up the hill beside the facility. She then saw a bomb strike the medics' vehicle, destroying it, and killing the three men, as well as the injured Nohrian they were attempting to get to safety. "We've got to get to the bunker… Now!"

Odin swallowed as he picked up the gun and began to run, "Gods, legs don't fail me now…"

"Drop the gun and run!" Camilla shouted, ducking behind a concrete barricade as a fighter passed overhead. It didn't engage on a strafing pass, instead opting to climb and turn north. A scream could be heard, prompting Camilla to turn to her left, to see a man impaled by falling shrapnel from another explosion: one of the hangars, which had been on fire, had been storing ordnance, and that had finally gone off, destroying the building, causing another steel rain as the demolished building was thrown into the sky in countless pieces. His eyes glazed, as blood rolled from a massive wound on his chest where the chunk of metal had struck him from behind, now it protruded from his chest.

In looking back, she saw something approach from the sea. They were wobbly, black blobs, growing slightly larger as time went, and it took her a moment for her brain to process what she was seeing, and in that moment, she looked back towards Odin who was running up a hill, almost in plain view to the attacking planes. She didn't say anything, as her mind was fixated on the approaching objects, before she too made a run for it. Bounding across the two-lane road and immediately covering her head when she had gotten over the barricade, she yelled, "BATTLESHIP FIRE!"

At the second her words rang out, Odin looked eastward, seeing shells in flight for their last moments, and throwing himself over the barricade with all the strength he could. The shells fell into the neighborhood. Explosions rang out as the bursting charges in the shells went off. Pieces of burning wood, glass, and plaster from what used to be houses and earth from yards where children once played soared through the air. Odin felt his stomach drop as he looked up, the neighborhood just outside the base now in ruins as the Hoshidan attack continued. On the horizon he could see more shells: the Hoshidan battle line was intent on devastating the island.

"Run!" Camilla called out, making her way up the hill.

"CAPTAIN!" Odin shouted as he saw a plane approach. It was a on a near level path, ready to strike Camilla dead in a single pass. He stopped looking slack jawed and ran, tackling Camilla to the ground as the fighter made a burst, rounds eviscerating the hill, passing right through where Camilla had once stood. Behind them a series of explosions rang out as more battleship shells arrived. Rising back to their feet, they again ran up the hill, their sandals sliding in the loose orange dirt, causing them to stumble as they made their way to the top of the vegetation covered hill, where they could take cover from the assault. Below several ships were sinking, while countless fires raged throughout the port. Hoshidan planes were beginning to peel back and withdraw, though they both knew it was far from over: with the enemy's battleships on the offensive, this wasn't just an attack. The Hoshidans were bearing their teeth.

Odin breathed heavily as he looked up at the sky, blackened thick with smoke, and the smell of fruit and rain was nowhere. All there was, was a sickening stench of fire and smoke, distinctly the smell of burning human flesh mixed in. His eyes were wide, as he saw two more planes approach, feeling the earth tremble as battleship shells continued their assault. It seemed as if the fighters were gunning specifically for them. It was then that Camilla spoke, "That… madwoman" she said, turning her head out to the side. There amidst the enemy was a lone Nohrian fighter. It rolled and zoom climbed away from three Hoshidan planes, narrowly avoiding their fire, before swooping in and engaging the two planes that flew towards her and Odin's position. "Selena, you're crazy. Completely… and utterly… crazy." Camilla said, her right hand shaking as she watched. The black-and-purple Wildcat dove, its weight giving it a powerful speed advantage as it pounced on the first of the fighter-bombers. Its four guns blazing, and the first of the pair of enemy planes burst into flames. It spun, slamming hard into the pavement, blocking the road with wreckage, which burned for a few moments before a pair of powerful explosions ripped from it. The Wildcat pulled into a high loop, losing speed, but rapidly gaining altitude, before rolling over into a level flight, after which, it accelerated.

The Nohrian aircraft swooped into a shallow dive, picking off the other attacking aircraft which had tried to climb after the first had been shot down. The front end of the second aircraft had blown off, and it flipped over, plunging into the burning waters below. The Nohrian aircraft had scored a double kill however, was distinctly in trouble as two of the white-and-red fighters snap-rolled from behind. Flashes of tracers passed by the Nohrian fighter. It turned, banking hard into a tight dive, attempting to gain speed, passing by the hilltop. The Wildcat was in tatters, its fuselage clearly riddled with bullets, the canopy cracked and shattered in places. The plane's left wing in particular had a large jagged hole passing completely through it, prompting Camilla to shout in vain, "YOUR LEFT WING! YOU'VE GOT A HOLE IN YOUR LEFT WING!"

"That… was Selena." Odin said, shakily, "She's…"

"Still flying." Camilla answered, turning to walk down the path leading into the jungle. "We've got to keep moving. We can't help her, or the rest of our fleet from here."

"You're…" Odin bit his lower lip, lowering the brush and following the purple-haired captain. "Right, but where are we headed?"

"We need to get to the third auxiliary hangar… get airborne and to the _Queen Arete._" Camilla responded, "Rendezvous with Laslow, and hopefully Selena, when and if she lands along the way. This… battle… if we could call it such, is lost. Completely and utterly lost."

Odin nodded in silent compliance. "Time to get walking…"

_Skies over the Harbor_

Selena choked as she tried to keep her wildcat in the air. Her breath was labored, and she was plainly furious. Three of the Hoshidans were down, but there was still a swarm of them overhead, and with three other fighters on her tail, she couldn't really fight back. Blasts of flak from the allied anti-aircraft guns burst at her sides, trying to shave one or more of the fighters on her. Below, she saw the devastation the Hoshidan attack had wrought. Flames and billowing clouds of smoke rose into the sky around her while people screamed in the burning waters below. Most ships in the harbor had sunk, and most facilities had been demolished. The command building, the hospital and all the hangars on the front were gone or burning to the ground. She rolled the plane, turning tightly as she could, flying inverted over the ground, about 50 feet up, while a pair of anti-aircraft cannons rotated to face her. "FIRE!" She screamed, as her plane passed over the battery.

The pair of 40mm guns opened up, nailing one of the planes, damaging it, forcing it to climb skyward, trailing black smoke as its propeller started to stall, but shots rang out from one of the other aircrafts, and bullets tore the two Nohrians manning the guns to bloody shreds, silencing the gun as soon as it had started to fire. Selena winced as she heard the firing, rolling the plane away from another round of bullets from the attackers, but she knew that her plane lacked the strength to get away from the Hoshidans at this altitude, and with the damages to her airframe, she knew she had to put it down soon, or it would give out, and go down on its own. She was at every disadvantage she could be in while in home territory, adding to that, she was just about out of ammunition. She couldn't win this fight, and it burned her.

She looked around putting what vision she could on her pursuers. One was like the others with enough distinction to make it stand out. Where on the vast majority of the other Hoshidan fighters was red, on this one was purple, not unlike the purple trim of the Nohrian planes. In addition, it had two black lines on the wings, and the Hoshidan roundel on it was a brilliant golden. She grunted, rubbing her side, and pitching the plane upwards: if she had any hope of survival, it was to gain much needed altitude. She'd burn her engine for it: it wouldn't matter if it gave out: what mattered at once was not getting killed by the foes on her tail. The sound of bullets whizzing by however, alerted her, and she pitched the plane. It was another ground gun, firing away at one of the Hoshidan fighters. Rounds hit one of her pursuers and now the fight was a one on one as the plane hit by AA fire spun towards the earth, its wing tearing away but there was no stopping it from enacting revenge on the AA crew: the stricken plane slammed into the AA gun, engulfing it in flame.

Selena coughed as she pitched the plane high, dropping flaps and rolling it over. She didn't have much ammo, so if she was going to win this duel, she needed to land this attack. The purple and black striped Hoshidan plane rolled left. It narrowly evaded the burst from Selena's guns, while she pulled the plane back into a zoom climb. "Don't… give… chase… never turn with a Zero" she said to herself looking over her shoulder, while the Wildcat broke into the clouds. To her surprise, the enemy wasn't in pursuit, it had continued with its left-ward turn and peeled away from the fight. Selena was caught in a split thought pattern: part of her was relieved her enemy had disengaged. The other part knew the disadvantages she was in and made note of the worry that the enemy had put into her chest.

She knew she needed to put the plane down, and the spluttering of the engine giving its last breaths reaffirmed that. She turned the plane, pitching it downward, keeping it cloud-borne for the time being. If she really couldn't engage that black-stripped _Zeke_ before, she certainly didn't have it in her to do so now. "Damn… only two kills." She said under her breath, though in part due to her leading the targets in, had allowed anti-aircraft crews to cripple or destroy two other foes as well. She pulled her hand up to her face to readjust her goggles, paying little mind to the blood that covered her palm. She wasn't going to die here, she swore.

Ahead of her, the auxiliary three field, which sat next to large lake fed by a river, which split directions just north of it, that ran into a set of waterfalls, that under any other time would normally be teeming with tourists, due to the natural beauty of the waters was just in view. She tilted the plane down and flashed a signal with a light. She also practically screamed into her radio, "I'm coming down… now. Engine's dead… this bird's had it." A signal from a watch tower flashed back, no radio message given.

Trailing smoke, Selena managed to land her wildcat, thought he landing gear gave out and the plane tumbled and nearly skidded off the runway. Emergency response crews were already responding, hosing down Selena's burning aircraft, as she stumbled, with a bit of help out of the cockpit. Her beige and blue pajamas stained red with blood, as she struggled to stay on her feet.

She fell back down, as two medics, including a petite woman with long blonde pigtails looked at her with grimaces in their eyes. She wore purple ribbons in her hair, which matched almost precisely with her wide purple eyes. At first glance, one would figure her a child, but Selena was too shaken and hurt to care. The woman immediately lifted Selena's shirt, pulling away the bloodied fabric from the side of the woman's body. "Oh… no… you've been shot!" She exclaimed, "We have to treat this at once!"

Selena rolled out her left hand, as the medics placed her on a stretcher. She shook her head, "I'm not shot. I just need some damn water," she said sloppily.

"Stay awake, dammit." The other medic shouted, squeezing Selena's hand. "You pass out now, and you might never wake up, and after that stunt of you hopping in that plane and getting into the fight as outmatched as we are… we need you, and pilots like you."

"I said I'm not shot." Selena coughed, trying to sit up, but the blonde pigtailed medic pushed down on Selena's chest forcing her to lay back down.

"We'll get you water once you're inside. We really need to get you to a hospital, or to the carrier, but…"

"The hospital has been bombed…" Selena said, slowly, uncurling her fingers. "Gods… can't let Captain Camilla beat me." She muttered, as a man in a uniform showing no rank ran up to the medics with a jug of water and a few cups.

"I brought water for our hero, Miss Elise." The man said, saluting the blonde.

"Thank you. We can't really do much triage here…" Elise said and shook her head only to stop, her eyes widening as two figures, both carrying guns stepped out from the brush, about 200 yards away. She bit her lower lip as four soldiers rushed the two figures who surrendered immediately. She couldn't tell what was going on, but it looked like they were leading the two in their direction, while another man whom she knew was Lieutenant Laslow Lowell, walked up to them.

There was a tense moment of silence as the parties regrouped, Laslow holding a radio as he did, slung over his shoulder was a rifle, and he was adorned in a drab gray set of fatigues. A grimace was upon his face as they all stared at each other. "Selena… what the hell happened?" He asked, as he looked at her.

"She appears to have been shot during the aerial engagement," Elise explained. "She's not dead, and the bullet doesn't appear to have hit anything vital, but she's got a fever from shock and appears to be a bit delusional. She… should live, provided we can treat her. The problem is that there's nowhere to do that here…"

"The Queen Arete, Elise." Camilla said, brushing aside her long purple hair and kneeling next to the medic. "I wish we weren't meeting like this, but instead as sisters."

"Yeah, me too." Elise nodded. "But how are we going to get to the Queen Arete?"

"Coded Telegram with the ship's approximate location." Camilla said, handing Elise an envelope, "She's between here and the mainland. We fly out by one of the Catalinas, no— both go up. The Hoshidans may give chase, but it's doubtful they'll keep the pressure on one or two patrol bombers for long, as they'll assume, with any luck we're flying to Dia."

Elise nodded, "Let's get her on that plane!" She shouted pointing at two of her subordinates, one of whom was a tall man with a very square jawline, blonde hair. He was rather muscular, and he had a different looking get up. Unlike the other Nohrian uniforms, his was tri-color for the most part, a bright blue topping, while his abdomen was clad in white. While his boots and gloves were red. On his chest was a large golden star, and on his back a large shield. He carried two guns: a rifle and a pistol. The pistol was strapped above his left breast while the rifle was slung to his side.

The man nodded, running over and lifting Selena's stretcher, while another, a tough, burly looking woman who wore a tank-operator's uniform grabbed the feet of the stretcher and the began to walk across the grass to the flying boat which sat undisturbed in the lake. That plane was their ticket to escaping the island and they knew they had to leave as soon as possible.

"Don't drop her, Arthur!" Elise said firmly, "Remember, it's ALL skill, not luck."

"I know, I know Elise. Justice won't fail us here." The large man, Arthur, said in response.

Elise nodded with a laugh, looking over at Camilla, whom had a wistful look on her face. Her eyes were locked on the hangar, paying little mind to the men or her younger sister. "Camilla?"

"Elise, do you know if that Wildcat can fly?"

"The one Selena was flying?" Elise asked, shrugging her shoulders "No way."

"Of course, not that one, the other one in the hangar." Camilla said, looking intently at it. "Those Hoshidan Zekes well shred our Catalina… we will need an escort."

Elise paused, placing right index finger on her lips. "I don't know."

"Well… I suppose we'll find out one way or the other," Camilla said, "My plane was destroyed in the attacks on the hangars below, but… we need something." She said, sighing, looking over at Odin, "Odin and Laslow, you two have the guns on our Cat, I'll hopefully fly escort. Elise… take care of Selena," Camila said, turning back towards the hangar and walking away purposefully, a sheer look of furious determination filling her eyes.

"You heard my sister. We're taking the Catalinas; do we have pilots?" Elise's quite demeanor became sharp and commanding as she looked over at a few of the soldiers. "Fetch him, on the double."

"Yes, ma'am!" Two men shouted, turning back and running towards the small concrete building, as rain began to fall from the clouds overhead. A flash of lightning cracked in the distance as the Nohrians turned towards their respective duties, with Elise and the two soldiers carrying Selena followed by Odin and Laslow quickly making their way to the docks were the two flying boats were tied down. They both looked down at Selena, whom had closed her eyes but was still breathing steadily, with worried looks on their faces.

_Northwest of the Main Harbor, over open waters_

Percy shook his head. "That… can't be right." He said, reviewing the message in his brain. A coded message had been received by the bombers over radio and translated mid-flight. "You're saying… Hoshido has attacked, and our entire fleet is gone?"

"That's correct Sol leader." The Bomber's radioman responded. "There's distress calls across most frequencies." The man answered, as a red light, labeled 'encrypted', lit on his set, and on the radio in Percy's cockpit, "The Nohrian Army and what remains of the 4th Fleet are going to be retreating from the Sevenfold Sanctuary, meanwhile the mission of this flight is changed. Official command from Admiral Leo requests that the 5th Bomber Group assess the situation from the skies and bomb any attempted Hoshidan Landings. Sol, Luna and Astra squadrons will provide cover for both the 5th and any retreating Nohrian aircraft."

"Understood… but how? Why?" Percy said, sighing and lifting his left hand up, squeezing his red gloves tight and popping his left thumb before using his scarf to wipe fog off his goggles. He felt his heart drop as he looked around at the sky outside. The four-engined bombers flew in a tight formation, four groups of three, staggered in height, with the lowest group the furthest back, while the highest up group was in the east. The fighter formations were mixed into the groupings of the bombers. Sol Squadron's P-55s were mixed in to the west and front of the formations. Luna Squadron's P-58s were towards the rear, while Astra Squadron and their P-54s were directly eastward or of the Sol squadron.

"I wonder what's in the cards, "Hero"." Sophie said, slightly giggling.

"Probably Two Pair, high Seven." Percy shook his head, angling a visor in the plane, filtering away the sunlight. "And enough with the teasing, Scatterbrain. You know I'm no Captain Nohr or the Invincible Draugman."

"Hey, I'm not a scatterbrain! …just a bit clumsy!" Sophie exclaimed, turning her head and glaring at Percy as best she could from her position. "And of course, you're not anything like those comic book heroes- not as dashing or cool."

A muffled chuckling could be heard on the radio before Nyx spoke up, "If you two are going to bicker as if you were married, why don't you actually get married and stop teasing everyone. Until then, please don't waste time on the radio for it."

"What!?" Sophie gasped, "We're not, no. No way."

"Don't lie, Sophie." Nyx said, nearly full on laughing, "But please be silent. It's hard enough to breathe."

"Yes, I'm going to have to concur with Sol Three. Radio silence unless the enemy is in sight." The lead bomber's radioman said, "This may be a secure transmission, but the radio position finders on the enemy may lead their fighters straight to us, and even if you're all aces, the reports are there's hundreds of them up there."

Percy sighed, shaking his head, "So we make this fast." He then moved his mic back down and lowered his hands back to the controls, blinking and looking back towards the horizon.

_Northwestern Airspace over the Island_

"Well, we got up without issue." Laslow said as he looked into the fuselage of the flying boat from the starboard gun blister. Below him, the mountains rolled away, while gray wisps of cloud flew past. The rumble of the engines shook the plane, shaking the .50 caliber machine guns. "Gods, it's damn cold up here." He shivered looking over his shoulder. "How the hell can you stand it, Odin?"

"We're only a mile up." Odin said, looking around to his side. "Take off was too wet."

"Oh, yes, the wetness. So much for these blisters keeping out the water. And it's still raining… and we're moving into a cloud." Laslow said, sighing. "Gods damn Hoshido." He pulled back his hands, letting the machine gun droop down, and pulling the blister's glass forward to keep back the drenching air. "I suppose… we're lucky."

Odin sighed, sliding back in his seat and looking up into the dark gray clouds. "Yeah, it's better than being dead on the ground. …think Selena's doing alright?" He said with a long sigh.

"You know, seeing you act 'normal' is disturbing as hell," Laslow said back, trying to warm himself up with a loose blanket that was kept in one of the boxes in the gun blister. "Yeah, you know she'll be fine."

"I hope so… that wound looked awful." Odin said lowly. "And …you know me well enough. This situation is exactly why I'm acting the way I am."

"I don't blame you, but it doesn't make it any less weird." Laslow said looking over his shoulder, before pausing for a moment. He swallowed and looked back into the plane's fuselage. Elise was sitting beside a bed with a dull look on her face. The plane's crew all had somber looks on their faces— at least the ones he could see. "I hope I'm just seeing things… anyway, Elise, how's Selena doing?"

"I'm doing fine, Laslow," Selena spoke up, only for Elise to sit up and place her hands on to Selena's side.

"Gods, Selena! Please don't sit up, not like that...!" Elise said sharply. "You're too badly hurt."

"Gawds, it's only a scratch. I should be in a damn fighter, not cooped up in here treating like I'm a kid." Selena said sharply before yelping in pain.

"It's not just a scratch. You were _shot_, Selena. You're lucky you're alive." Elise's voice was almost pleading as she spoke. "You've done enough."

"Elise is right, Selena," Odin said, "Don't overdo it." He then gasped, "Laslow, what did you mean by 'you hope you're just seeing things'?"

Laslow audibly gulped, snapping to raise the machine gun. "Gods dammit. Not our day. I swear, I hope your gun hand is gonna help you out today."

"I seem them too." Odin said looking back. In the distance there was a group of several Hoshidan fighters- roughly four miles to the rear. He exhaled hard, leaning into the gun, turning it aft, trying to get a good look at the approaching enemies. "Enemy fighters. 5 to 7 o'clock, at least twelve… no eighteen!"

"Twelve…?!" Elise exclaimed, "That… that's really awful."

"Yeah… needless to say, we're dead." Laslow said, grimacing. It was then that two Wildcats turned back, their wide bodies passing over the top of the flying boat.

"What are you doing, Camilla?!" Odin exclaimed. "That's two on eighteen!"

"If she doesn't do anything, we're all going to die." Elise said, the terror in her voice clear.

"GODS!" The pilot exclaimed. "We're done for. There's a group of planes heading straight for us… bombers and their escorts. Twenty-four planes in total."

Laslow bit his lip, drawing blood as he did, "Forty-two on four. Wonderful odds."

"No… those… are allied," the radio operator of the Catalina said, "It's… the Nohrian Army's Sol Squadron? Sol, Luna, and Astra squadrons, escorting Flying Fortress Bombers." The radio operator breathed intently, "Pilot, turn the plane! Twenty degrees starboard, climb by 5 degrees. Bring us to 16 thousand feet and out of these clouds! The bombers and allied fighters will cover our retreat… but we have to match height with the B-17s."

Odin turned his gaze, keeping the approaching Hoshidan formation in his sights as best he could as the Catalina turned. Passing in front him were a group of planes that he found to be exceptionally odd looking. "Those… planes… are flying backwards!"

"What?" Laslow coughed as he tried to get a look at the friendlies, but he couldn't get a look at them as the flying boat turned deeper into its climb, fixing his view on the earth thousands of feet below. The plane soon leveled out, though kept the nose pitched up. Sure enough, three of the strange fighters flew overhead. Their fuselage was cylindrical, almost consistent in thickness for the entirety of the plane, not tapering back like a Wildcat, Warhawk, or a Hoshidan Zero. The wings were narrow and swept backwards, and unlike other planes, were to the rear of the aircraft, their sweep pushing them out beyond the length of the fuselage. Forward of the plane, it had two trapezoidal canard elevators, each hardly half the length of the wings. The plane had two smaller than normal rudders affixed upon the wings, more circular in design when compared against other fighter aircraft. However, the most astonishing aspect of the strange fighter was where its engine was. Affixed behind the aircraft in pusher configurations, its exhaust vented out the side, glowing red hot as the engine ran on full power, the faint dim smoke pulled directly into the propeller behind the plane. The initial wave of planes was led by one that had wide blue and red stripes and golden coloration on the cockpit's framing, and the rudders were a distinct cherry red, while a lightning bolt insignia was on the middle of the plane. It pitched high, disappearing into the clouds followed by three others.

"Godspeed, Sol Squadron." The Radio operator said sliding back with a sigh of relief.

Camilla looked over her shoulder as she turned into the approaching Hoshidan formation. At their head was a plane with blue striping and Cherry blossoms along its side. She narrowed her eyes as she looked at the pilot of that plane, "I won't let you reach them." She said, pitching her wildcat down and into a dive. "I won't turn with you, and I will end you." She said as she broke from the clouds. The enemy was already reacting. Two planes curved away, but a third was too slow, and a tap on the stick and Camilla pressing her weight into the rudder pedals saw the wildcat turn just enough to line up her foe. Her guns roared, casings flying back, narrowly striking the frame of her cockpit as they did. She got what she was looking for: a line of fire and smoke from the Hoshidan aircraft. The wing of her target snapped off, and the wreckage turned left before diving earthward. "One down."

She continued the dive for a couple additional seconds, pitching her plane back, curving up and over a mountain, tilting the wings to avoid a tree, before pressing the plane's engine as much as she could, forcing a climb, dropping speed but gaining altitude. A flash of lightning ripped past her plane as it drove heavenward, Camilla looking back frantically. The Hoshidan formation was shattered, clearly on the hunt. She pitched the plane back, her hands moving freely, ready to strike. She scanned the cloudy horizon, sighting another Hoshidan plane, when she noticed something surprising: it was engaging another. She sighted her wing mate high overhead, and she also knew that the Catalinas would not have turned back, let alone descended to engage: they weren't fighters by any means. It was then that she realized which foe was engaged: it was that blue-lined squadron leader— and it wasn't her fight: she had other foes to worry about— penetrating the enemy's line would be on the reinforcements: she was to protect the retreating aircraft.

Reina narrowed her eyes trying to track the new foe. She was furious: one of the enemies had managed to shoot down and kill one of her squadron and had disappeared into the clouds. It would've been so delightful to watch her life fade while the patrol bombers she was protecting were also ripped from the air, but then she faced an ambush by this new aircraft that she couldn't identify. It wasn't anything like what command had described. It moved fast, exceptionally fast, and unlike other Nohrian fighters, it was nimble. She thought twice that she had it, and twice now she was wrong. She felt a chill and snapped her head right, before pulling on the stick, and for a moment, she caught sight of her foe. He was flying alongside her, matching speed and direction, almost as if to mock her. His plane was incredibly unusual, but it was his appearance in the cockpit that had stuck out the most to her. He had the face and posture of a child. She glanced at the instruments: the altitude was only 2338 meters, and her airspeed was below 350 km/h; a fact to which she smirked: there was no way her foe could outmaneuver her in these conditions. She violently threw the stick, and slammed the rudder pedals, putting the plane into a low barrel roll, engaging her plane's combat flaps as she did.

"Oh, you're skilled." Percy said, watching the blue-striped Hoshidan fighter roll around his, and immediately he opened up the throttle, and pitched the plane downward, rolling with her, opening the two sets of flaps, then as the plane hit the apex of the roll, he suddenly flipped the nose up. The plane's airspeed fell instantly as it shot into a hard climb with an angle of attack in excess of 80 degrees. Her move to get to his rear had failed, and in seconds, he had an altitude advantage, but the speed loss was dangerous: he needed the climb to end, and as such he cut throttle and retracted the flaps. Condensation rolled off the plane in its hard inversion, water keeping its forward momentum far easier than the three-ton plane. It dove hard, regaining all the energy he had bled in the effort to make the Hoshidan overshoot, and once again, they were on an even footing, though another Hoshidan was turning in to join the fight. "Of course, a villain like you, would have henchmen." He said pulling down the trigger on his guns- a flash of white light illuminated the cloud filled sky before him, as the pairs of .50 caliber machine guns and 20mm autocannons opened up for the brief moment that the other Hoshidan plane crossed his view— which then evaporated in a fireball. He looked around, catching sight of his blue-stripped foe. "Sophie! Nyx!" Percy said, keying his radio. "The better one is mine. Get the others. Help the Navy pilots keep those patrol bombers in the air."

Reina growled as she watched near helplessly as her quarry had evaded her grasp yet again and was greeted not to her enemy's cries of terror, but instead her ally's. That was two friendlies lost, and she was no closer to downing either the Wildcat that pounced from the clouds earlier, or this new foe, let alone the bombers which were growing smaller by the moment. Her plane's 925 horsepower engine whined as she brought the throttle into emergency power. The plane entered a light climb, gaining a small amount of altitude, but she was more worried about speed: she had the advantages when the fight was slow, but the opening of any fight had to be fast- with her foe disengaged, she needed to gain energy: regardless of the aspect of the fight at hand or tactics used, that was the most important part of a dogfight.

"Of course, Hero." Nyx responded on the radio as Percy took another pass at different Hoshidan fighter. His target falling to pieces in seconds.

"Don't call me that, you know I'm not a hero." Percy responded rolling his plane over and into a level flight, gaining on the blue striped foe. His foe reacted immediately, rolling high and spinning over in an Immelmann turn, and as she did, he pitched the plane into an attack position. "It's over with next shot, but it's been fun." He said, pulling down the trigger for a burst. The Hoshidan fighter snap rolled earthward, initially giving him the impression of having claimed the kill, but the lack of smoke and recovery of the fighter was all too evident. "I missed. That was not my intention." He then half-rolled the plane and put it into an inverted dive, leveling off, flying in the other direction, behind his foe, who was already decelerating. He raised the nose, expecting the loop, and got it: the Hoshidan fighter entered a violent hard climb, he followed, having anticipated the maneuver, continuing the loop where she would have, but his foe continued her climb. He smirked, a fatal error on her part.

Reina slammed the flaps open, throwing her aircraft onto its back, knowing the Nohrian fighter had foolishly tried to follow her to the heavens. As gravity took its course, and sent the light plane towards the ground, she opened up, all guns and cannons blazing. Nothing. There was nothing for her to fire at, bullets would strike the jungle below. The surprise and dread hit her immediately and she quickly looked around, trying to spot her foe: he was nowhere below her. She looked up and to the left, her eyes widening in shock: there was the nose of the Nohrian fighter, only a few hundred meters away, and in the post-stall dive she was in, she was effectively helpless, and facing a shot from that range there wasn't anything that could help her. The only solace was at that range, the Nohrian fighter was likely to crash.

"Goodbye, it's been fun." Percy said, as he pulled down the trigger. The sound from the cannons reverberated through his cockpit and the sky as they fired. The first shot went straight through the canopy of the fighter, showering it with blood as the 20mm shell detonated inside the pilot. The firing continued ripping through the plane, as Percy completed his evasive maneuver, turning the plane outside of the wreckage while keeping the nose inward, riddling it with bullets as he did. "Target is down, moving on."

"We have them on the retreat… that Wildcat got two more. Nyx scored doppel as well." Sophie answered, "Still a few more."

"Press the advantage but watch your ammo." Nyx said, smoothly. "Remember, use the cannon."

"Sol Squadron, you have my thanks." Camilla said, pulling into a climb in the opposite direction, away from the Army squadron, flying in the direction of the Catalinas.

"You're welcome, Navy pilot." Percy answered, "Go cover your friends. We'll handle the counteroffensive."

"Captain Camilla of the Revenant Knights acknowledges." Camilla replied, "I'm sure my sister Elise and everyone on those Catalinas would send their thanks as well." She smiled looking back as the group of pusher-prop planes gave chase against the dwindling Hoshidan squadron, thanks to them, she would live to fight another day, and fight she would.

* * *

**Weapon Profile:  
P-55D Ascender (Model D)  
**Type: Medium Range Fighter  
Configuration: Pusher Prop, 2 contra-rotating 3 blade propellers on a double shaft fed by a single Engine [C and D Models only]  
Crew: Single (Pilot)  
Length: 30 feet, 4 Inches  
Wingspan: 40 feet, 7 inches  
Height: 12 feet, 9 inch  
Powerplant: XH-2600 Super Tornado Twin-charged H Block Engine. 2215 Horsepower.

_Combat Characteristics: _  
Maximum Speed: 415 MPH at 16,500 feet.  
Maximum Altitude: 35,000 Feet.  
Redline Speed: 653 MPH at 10,000 feet.  
Turn time: 25.6 Seconds  
Initial Rate of Climb: 5157.5 Feet per Minute

_Armament_  
x2 .50 M1 Machine guns, 250 rounds each  
x2 20mm AN/M2 Autocannon, 200 rounds each

Armament is entirely nose-mounted.

The Model D is the newest improvement to the XP-55 Ascender Medium Range Supremacy Fighter project. Compared to the base model, it is nearly three feet taller, and 7 inches longer, accommodating for the larger and more powerful XH-2600 engine, as well as the larger twin propeller. It features larger, redesigned, elevators to improve their response time, greatly reducing the fighter's turning speed as well as forward wing-leading flaps. These improvements make the Ascender far more nimble in comparison to the base model.

Due to its strange pusher-configuration and unique performance compared to contemporaries, it is sometimes considered a Foo Fighter or UFO.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hooboy, long chapter, eh? It's really popping off now, hasn't it? War has officially begun. Definitely supposed to give off that Pearl Harbor feel, though there's a few things that are going to keep the war weird, and not just a WWII rip-off, first on the plate are the X planes Nohr's using here. IRL, the P-55 Ascender, AKA the XP-55 Ascender, and the other mentioned (X)P-54 Swoose Goose and (X)P-58 Chain Lightning, were kind of failures. Here the engine they were designed around is in use, and their big flaws have mostly been corrected. Just as a note, if you're wondering, the cartoon that's on Laslow's TV is not anything to do with Bendy and the Ink Machine or Cuphead, it's Felix the Cat, and that's a reference to John Thatch and the Fighting 31, and their squadron emblem of Felix with a Bomb.

The Repair Ship_ Rinea_ is actually a thing thanks to the _USS Vestal_ (AR-4)- as Rinea's fate is to become a Vestal, I took the name and applied it here. She's relatively unimportant.

Code of the Air? What Code of the Air?

Reads and Reviews appreciated.


	5. Intermission: Azurite

**Intermission: Azurite**

* * *

_Location: Approximately 30 Nautical miles from the Nohrian 6th Battlefleet_  
_Date: 18th Of April; 3rd year of Open War_  
_Time: 11:36 Local_

The whistle of the Nohrian fighters in their dive was not the only sound in the air, but it was prominent and clear as the lethal intent of those in the sky. The moments of tension and fear created a palpable silence from the Hoshidan vanguard, many of whom were rookie pilots, with less than twenty hours in the air. For them, the stories of the dreaded sound that could be heard in the distance flashed through their minds. It was at this point, a dread warning. In the early stages of the conflict, Hoshido could best Nohr in the sky almost as if it wasn't a comparison. But slowly their advantage had been stripped from them. Better planes, more experienced pilots, and the losses. The losses added up, and fast. Worst of it was the crushing defeat at Sevenfold. When the Nohrian Admiral Leo broke through their blockade and had embarrassed the Hoshidan fleet, slaughtering their best. When half the pilots Hoshido had burned and drowned in boiling seas, set aflame as ships sank. After that, there was something Hoshidan pilots knew to fear. It was referred to as the Death Whistle, a song of death created as air was pulled into the radiators of the premiere Nohrian naval fighter in a dive. A sound that reverberated through every plane in the sky.

"Stay calm, and focus!" Hinoka ordered, her voice sharp and demanding. "Fight, dammit! Hoshido is counting on you!"

Her words were enough for the formation, which kept its rigid bearing right up until the moment the black-colored fighters broke the clouds. There was a flash, and the scream of rounds in flight. A Hoshidan fighter exploded in a ball of flame and debris. Two others fell as quickly as the first: wings sheared away, fuselages breaking apart spectacularly. Flame and smoke filled the air as the battle's first shots were fired, and Nohr drew first blood. Pilots were reacting, and the chaos was unfolding: formations broke, and shells ripped through the air. Yet, as the world turned and the sky filled with flame, smoke, debris and blood around her, Hinoka remained firm. The target of the flight was in sight, and she swore today it ends.

"Azama, Hana. Cover me," Hinoka said, "Subaki, cover the Hamaki. We're close. So… close."

Two of the Hoshidan planes rolled from the chaos, and dove down, joining with Hinoka's plane. The trio turned into a group of Nohrians; cannon and gunfire resounded. One of their targets erupted in flames, it violently lurched right and then the right wing broke free, collapsing back, and slamming into the propeller as the plane tumbled out of control. Another exposed Nohrian met a similar fate shortly after.

"Special Attack Squadron" Hinoka shouted, "Our orders are to break through the enemy's air blockade and attack their fleet! And look east! You can see their damnedable battleships on the horizon! All other aircraft, cover the special attack squadron with your lives!" two Nohrian planes rolled on the six of Hinoka's plane. "I won't… die before I accomplish my mission!" She shouted, slamming her right foot pedal to the metal of the airframe, and pulling back on the control stick, while reaching over and pulling a lever. The plane immediately pitched up and to the right, pulling into a tight vertical roll with a slight rightward motion to it. She could feel her stomach drop as the machine turned into its dizzying maneuver. As the plane hit the apex of its motion, she shoved the lever back in and shifted her weight. The control stick jammed as far forward as she could, and the pedals shifted exactly opposite. She could feel the plane's jerking motion. It was like it wanted to rip apart from the forces, and do the same to her. However, as her vision blurred, she could feel it return to normal, with the Nohrian fighter in her view.

She pulled the trigger and rolled the plane, dodging wreckage, and quickly scanned her view for the other. Not in sight, which worried her, but her fear was short: her foe was revealed soon enough, however, it wasn't in the fashion she had hoped. She caught sight of the Nohrian plane, immediately to her right, pausing for a moment as if to taunt her. Below, the shattered remains of Hana's plane fell into the sea. She could see it clear as day, a rival pilot she had clashed with before. The dark colored plane, bore identifying insignia, "VF-147 Revenant Knights", and while she was too far to read the pilot's name, the nose art gave it away. A woman baring her body to the world on a lavender sheet, with a golden butterfly beside her head, and written aside were the words "Bewitching Beauty". Eighteen kill marks adorned the plane, though, she knew that was far from an accurate count, this woman had felled more of her comrades than almost any other. Once before, they had clashed. It was a mutual loss then. Only fitting that they'd meet here and now. A gesture met in the eyes of both as they sized up their foe: there was a score to settle.

Both turned back, and both planes accelerated, turning into the clouds. Around them, the battle raged on, sounds reverberating through the glass and metal that surrounded both. Hinoka breathed heavily as she turned her head to the side, constantly looking for her foe. She pulled the plane up, and peeling out of a cloud bank and turning to the left. Below her, two more planes were caught in a duel, and as much as she wanted to intervene she knew she had to keep her composure. She only could watch as below, the bulkier Hoshidan fighter turned, but it had done so too late, the Nohrian fighter had caught it from the side, and gunned it down, as it rose back into the clouds. Behind and above her were a group of four of the two-engined bombers, carrying white oblong rockets with trapezoidal wings below them, moving ever closer to their target, but she didn't have time to think about them. She needed to bring down her foe and make it to the Nohrian fleet. She turned in and dove: out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the one Nohrian amidst the many she aimed to bring down. Her wingmates could handle the rest. A smirk crossed her face, only for it to be dashed, needing to quickly roll her plane to avoid fire that lanced out at her from the clouds: she had been fooled, as the plane she was dueling broke from the clouds, nearly with a clean shot on her. Were it not for the split second timing on her part, she'd be dead.

She narrowed her eyes, turned her plane about, and gave chase. It was going to be a rough fight: she could feel it. She glanced down at her instrument panel, over at a faded picture of her standing beside a man and sighed, "I'm coming soon, Kaden," she whispered to herself, before engaging the key on her radio, "Cover the Attack Squadron and the Bombers, we're nearly in target range. This one is mine, one last foe to fell!" She huffed, rolling her shoulders and pitching the plane, again side by side with her foe. She looked over, and caught sight of the woman. Her purple hair was obscuring one eye, and she had a smirk on her face. It was just for a second before both planes again broke, engines whining as they both accelerated. As she felt the plane pull her into her seat, she closed her eyes briefly, and a memory almost like a dream crossed her mind. A memory of days long gone by, of people who've left the world, but as the world burned around her, that memory of peaceful days was only that, a memory, long gone as the sword of war had fallen on the world, taking the hope of tomorrow and bending it into an edge that cut deeper than any other.

A simple thought crossed her mind, a reminder, words of an Emperor who'd made the world a better place.

_Dying for the greater good is not a death in vain._

It was her place to remember that, she needed to. And in this fight she had no intention to return from, it was in that, she had to place her hope, because behind the suffering, there had to be a meaning in the bloodshed and loss. She would not accept letting those who've perished in the flames, would not accept their sacrifices to be in vain.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Eeesh, just trying to get to what I wanted to do here was difficult. And then if it wasn't an overwhelming sense of "No One Cares" on top of "don't know what to do" it was "Three Houses Happened". Took a while to get back into this. Either way, here's an intermission, back to the titular last flight. And now more Hinoka focus. Admittedly, Midway did reignite some of the drive for doing this.


	6. Chapter 4: Night of Crimson Farewells

**Chapter 4: Night of Crimson Farewells**

* * *

War had come to the world as a whirlwind, a great tempest that swept away everything in its path. In a matter of days from the 6th of July, the course of history was set on an irrevocable path. Lord Yukimura, acting under orders from Prime Minister Hashikata and the venerated Empress Mikoto led the southern combined fleet in a series of brutal assaults on Nohrian ports and coastal cities. The once bright and beloved Sevenfold Sanctuary became a sickening battleground. Nohr was forced on the retreat, her fleets in tatters and only a small vestige of military might remained in the South Vallan sea. Skirmishes were frequent, and every one of them was met with defeat for the Nohrian forces. While on the day of the assault, a surprising counter attack led by a daring group of Flying Fortress bombers escorted by unique fighters broke through the hellish attack on Sevenfold, denying the Hoshidan landing fleet a proper invasion that day, it was abundantly clear: the south was lost. The _Queen Arete_, one of a few Fleet Carriers had slipped away undetected, steaming towards the icy North Vallan Ocean: her course known only to a few, set to rendezvous with the _Byrnhildr_\- the first of the _Dragonfall_-class Battleships put to sea.

On the same day as the Hoshidan assault on Sevenfold began, a bomb, rumored to have been smuggled in by the diplomat Corrin, exploded in the Imperial palace. It was nearly decisive: Empress Mikoto was mortally wounded by shrapnel from the bomb, dying in view of her sons: Prince Ryoma and General Takumi. They were spared the blast by a sheer miracle, the bomb having been placed beside a column that saved the two princes from the same blast that had taken their mother. The Prime Minister was also out of the palace at the time of the explosion. And almost like a phantom, Corrin, or as the Hoshidans had come to know, Prince Kamui, seemingly vanished into the night.

It was then, amidst the chaos that Nohr showed its hand. General Xander of Nohr had launched an offensive from the North. Aided by allies in the Mokusho, Nohr had managed to reach a parity: for every inch they lost in the oceans to the south, was a blood-won inch in the rugged North. Tanks pressed on, trampling the verdant fields and snow covered mountains of western Hoshido, while dive bombers demolished Hoshidan camps from above. It seemed as if the world was turning. Then, in the fourth month of the war, something strange unfolded. Xander mounted a retreat. Ground taken by the Nohrian army was abandoned. Bases put to the flame, supplies scuttled and torched. Fortifications given up. No battle spurned the General's retreat. No surprising victory by the Hoshidans in the north. Xander simply took his forces, and slipped back into Nohr, with his secretive mission accomplished.

In the south, Yukimura continued his rampage, his fleet ransacking Dia, before repositioning on a secret anchorage near the Sevenfold. However, it was certain, he was hunting the remnants of the Nohrian carrier fleet. A course that some say was the reason for his demise, and a turning point in the war. The counterattack and beginning of Nohr's proper invasion. It was his relentless pursuit of the remaining fleet that left him underprepared and outmaneuvered by his opponent once his hand forced.

History would recall the coming action. It was when Admiral Leo of Nohr entered the stage. Leo, was one of Garon's sons, eccentric, and famed for his intelligence. The man's countenance and demeanor sometimes didn't match his actions, though the golden skull on his black, purple and red-clad uniform would give warning. However, as the Admiral schemed against his opponent, he needed to push his foe into a trap he was beginning to set. When Xander's mission was accomplished, he suggested the use of Nohr's tank battalions in a feigned offense, a move that initially piqued Leo's interest. However Garon instead intervened, introducing General Iago to the fray, and started a wicked campaign in the skies. The Fourth Air force has entered play, and under their black wings, death was certain to follow. Winged assassins, flying high: it didn't matter- man, woman or child, countless would die.

And in doing so, the wicked brutality from above would be the hammer upon Leo's anvil, shaping the form of the war.

"_Once a kingdom has been set to ruin, it may never come again into being, nor can the dead ever be brought back to life__" - A famed Tactician_

_Location: Skies over Western Hoshido_  
_Date: 24th Of November; 1st Year of open war_  
_Time: 23:15 Local_

The sky was dark: high clouds obscured the formation of bombers as they flew through the moonless night. The only lights were the faint red and green navigation lights of the Nohrian planes and the occasional flash of lightning ripping through the sky. It was icy cold at altitude, and the Nohrian personnel shivered as they sat in their tense positions. The flight had lasted for three hours and twenty two minutes on the nose, and by dead reckoning, they'd arrive over their target in eight more. Eyes were always on the lookout: yet, no flak nor fighter was seen; the skies were quiet over Hoshido. The plan was going far too well for some of the squadron's liking, and that added to the palpable tension in the air.

The pilot, a lanky man whose features could hardly be seen through the bulky flak vest, oxygen mask and fuzzy helmet and bulky gloves looked back into the fuselage of the plane, "Are we sure we're on course?"

Another fuzzball of a man looked over at a chart, and listed off a few numbers, before asking, "IAS?"

"Steady. 252." The pilot answered back. Suddenly a bright light flashed in the sky ahead. "Flak. Dammit. It's gonna get rough." Flashes and bursts were lighting up the sky, but had no sense of direction. It was going up randomly: the Hoshidans knew the Nohrian formation was up there, but didn't know where, and perhaps, not the direction they were flying. The pilot looked grimly as the instruments. "Keep formation… don't panic."

A chime sounded through the plane as the bomber crew manned their positions. The thunderous clap of flak bursts shook the plane as it continued the trek. Alongside the aircraft the familiar green and red lights disappeared into the darkness though a keen observer could keep track of the bomber formation in the darkness. Ball turrets lowered and took aim, as crews manned the waist guns. The blasts of flak continued, however as the pilot noted, it was light. A handful of bursts, little more than five or six every thirty seconds or so: frightening, but hardly threatening.

"Radar, any sight of fighters or the target?" The pilot shouted back.

"No enemy fighters airborne. Target is in range. It's far too sparse for this to be a true military target." Another man answered as he looked up from his scope. "Have we been given wrong information?"

"Who cares?!" A woman shouted from below. She turned back to the navigator, "We bomb them until they're dead!" The bombardier was a short woman with a large chest, that clearly moved her heavy flak vest away from her figure. Her eyes reflected in the emerald phosphoric light, clearly different colors, with the tips of her cotton-candy colored hair poking through her fuzzy helmet.

"We're not all murderers, Peri!" the navigator responded. "We're not here to ki-" He suddenly stopped as he realized she had drawn her sidearm.

"Order was we go over the target. We drop bombs. We kill the enemy." Peri shouted back. "Murder is one thing. Treason is another."

"We aren't here to kill civilians, Peri," The man said, "verify the target first. If we're…"

She shook her head, keeping the gun trained on him. "We're here to kill the enemy! Burn their things! Burn _them!_"

"Captain! Peri's…"

"Peri's right. Warden's orders. We're here to release the payload over the target. That's how war is. You shoot, the enemy dies. Higher ups take care of the rest."

The navigator slumped back, dejected, "We're over target as per instruments."

"Good. Commence bombing run." The pilot said, putting the plane into a slight downward curve. Other planes in the formation followed suit. "First wave marks the target. Second wave marks the perimeter. Third and fourth destroy what's left. Fighters commence strafing run once all bombers have released payload."

The plane lurched as the bomb-bay doors opened. The sudden turbulence shook the aircraft. Bones rattled inside the flying fortress. There was a brief moment of uneasy tension, then the sudden metallic clank of the clasps holding the multiple 500 pound bombs the plane carried released, fifteen in total, with three headed earthward. There was a hollow whistle of air as the bombs fell from the aircraft, carried on their now ballistic trajectories on a deadly path to Hoshidans below.

"Hoshidan buildings are made of wood and paper, and burn very easily," Peri said, practically laughing "Burn!" A click could be heard between her words, and three more bombs fell from the plane to join the group earlier. A half minute passed and then there was a cluster of orange flashes from the ground. Bombs detonating on their assault fuses. Flames would engulf the target soon enough. Then three seconds later, more flashes. To the sides of the bomber, others were releasing payloads. Over one hundred bombers were in the formation. 750 tons of bombs would fall tonight. Many people would die in the flames, and she smirked at the thought.

The Navigator felt sick as he slumped back into his position.

_Location: Northern Esperanza Naval Port_  
_Date: 24th Of November; 1st Year of open war_  
_Time: 20:07 Local_

Northern Esperanza was a derelict Nohrian city, hidden in the fjords that commanded the Nohrian portion of the North Vallan Sea. The Nohrian Navy held a base there, but the city was far more known for being a place where industry failed. Homeless people, criminals, and a destitute sense of desperation was almost the defining feature of the city. The war was arguably, though, the greatest thing to a city that nearly earned the moniker of "_City of despair". _The forgotten city was secluded, and readily defensible. Protected by infamous "Bottomless Canyon" ocean trench, which was known for its impossible depths and treacherous seas, making it a seldom-ventured location for even the most seasoned of sailors, and towering mountains, and a stormy climate, it would make for a horrible approach for any aggressor. This meant the destitute city became a place of strategic importance, and that brought hope: hope that the increased industry brought by the demand for wartime production would bring some form of economic revival, one that came almost explosively as a simple letter from Admiral Leo announced a change in Nohrian naval policy. The secluded port became the home port for the displaced Nohrian armada that yearned for vengeance for Sevenfold, and the steel behemoths returned to its rusted and snow-covered docks.

Late November brought ever darker clouds, and a bone-chilling frost as the cold winter began to set in. This clashed against the coal-fueled steel mills, and shipbuilders worked around the clock. Glowing orange sparks of metalwork flickered amidst snowflakes in the dark, smokey skies as brilliant carbon-tip flood lights illuminated the dry docks. The distant buzz of protective patrols of aircraft added to the sound of work. But for those who'd lived in the dreary town for any meaningful amount of time, it was hardly a reassurance, for poverty was an omnipresent threat, ill-abated by the moment, but the change was still welcome, as little could beat back the late fall better than a few hot meals. Alongside the shipyards were a few active piers where a few sailors stood alert watches, their eyes tired from scanning the horizon. The flash of blue siren-lights as military police arrested a drunken man who recklessly waved a knife about reflected off the dirty ice-filled waters, and against the hulls of two mighty Nohrian vessels, tinting the haze rising from the cold waters of the harbor a brilliant blue.

The carrier, _Queen Arete_, was moored on one side of the pier, and across from her was the battleship, _Brynhildr._ The two massive capital ships dominated the port, which had become filled with various vessels. Two heavy cruisers were out in the harbor, anchored alongside tugboats and barges. A Destroyer was held aloft via cranes and wooden shoring in a drydock across the ink-tinged waters. Flickers of sparks flew alongside as workers conducted maintenance on the vessel's hull. A weary older Battleship, and her twelve fourteen inch guns was stationed at the mouth of the harbor, the light of a sailor's cigarette glowing along her aft.

The _Queen Arete _creaked as she gently rolled in the waves, the sound of ice scraping along her hull. On her deck sat two bent-wing fighters- the newest Nohrian naval fighters, each armed with six .50cal machine guns in their wings. The two were tied down with straps, snugly fit to clasps on the decks. A few men were hauling a crate up a ramp leading into the depths of the ship as a sentry yawned while pacing the decks above. Thin wisps of smoke rolled from the wide smokestack on her island, illuminated by the spotlights that scanned the sky. Red lights inside the ship glew in their dim incandescence, hard to see in the dim light of the harbor.

Her opposite number was the brand-new _Dragonfall-_class Battleship, _Brynhildr_. The massive warship was a near ink-colored, golden trim, and a surprisingly ornate outer covering for a ship that was meant for war. Were it not for the bristling amount of weaponry, one might mistake her for a cruiseliner. But _Brynhildr _was armed and armored. Her outer hull was sleek and well-lined, for her armor belt was within: a novel concept that the architects of her design would one day find solace in their victory: there was something said to keep a spacing of steel before the true armor, and the internal belt also helped the ship keep her form, which made the _Dragonfalls_ the fastest proper battleships on the waves, capable of breaching 35 knots at forward flank. Atop her decks were her mighty 16-inch guns, three to each turret, of which there were three. A seemingly random spattering of 20mm and 40mm anti-aircraft guns adorned the vessel's superstructure, turning it into a near truly unassailable fortress on the waves Her bridge loomed over the guns, red lights in the armored conning tower and bridge shown through the windows towards her bull-headed bow. Some observers from the misty pier below might even describe the look into the dim bridge of the battleship as demonic.

It was fitting then, that these two ships rest side-by-side, for it was they who would turn the tides of war. It was from the armored citadel of _Brynhildr _aided by the flight groups from _Queen Arete_, that Admiral Leo would bring forth the downfall of the mighty Hoshidan Navy in a battle that would soon approach, and far faster than many would have estimated- though plans for the Nohrian counter-offensive were already deep in the works: intelligence officers worked around the clock, while strategists like Admiral Leo himself or the slightly deranged General Iago, devised plans, each eager to turn the winning trick, while even more secretive men sought a bigger stick. Intercepted radio, espionage, and ramblings the like of what any normal person would be called madness were coming together like clockwork.

The two vessels had already drew Hoshidan blood, with _Arete_'s _Revenant Knight_ squadron commended for heroics during the retreat from Sevenfold, shooting down Hoshidan fighters and bombers as they prepared to flee the wrath of the Hoshidan fleet, with then Lieutenant Selena earning a Medal for her heroics, though she was wounded in the process. While there were rumors that had circulated about the _Brynhildr_ running down a Hoshidan destroyer in the North Vallan Ocean, sinking it with all hands lost, mercilessly gunning down survivors of the attack to ensure the battleship was never sighted by living eyes. The former was well documented, and the latter denied or excluded all but the highest-levels of security, all part of the machinations of an intelligent war machine that knew that it was secrecy that would find the fatal strategy that would thrust Nohr's sword into the chest of the Hoshidan empire. Precious few knew, and fewer understood the weight that one inconspicuous night in that forgettable port would have, but the gears of history were turning.

A piano played softly in a rundown bar far from the base. Outside a cat dug through the garbage, as two burly looking men eyed an alley-back door to the establishment. Inside, there weren't many patrons, though a keen eye might recognize a few as Admiral Leo, Captain Camilla, and General Xander, along with Lieutenant Commander Selena, Captain Laslow Lowell, and First Lieutenant Odin. The meeting of the _Revenant Knights' _CO, and the Admiral and General of the Greater Nohrian forces might have raised eyebrows, but one might be keen to remember that they were siblings.

"...La la la, di da da" the piano player sang as a harmonica player joined into the song, a few of the patrons raised glasses of alcohol, one drunkenly spilling his drink upon himself. A woman laughed at him, as she directed the bouncer to remove the drunken man, who begrudgingly went with them, reluctantly paying his tab with a few coins he had in his pockets as another man hailed a cab for him. Another man, wearing a well made silk suit, that one might describe as "crisp" adorned with a black tie, though it hardly seemed correct on him with his eyepatch over his right eye. He had blazingly white hair that peeked out from underneath his fedora, though the neon light from the sign he was under didn't paint him or his darker than the usual crowd's skin in a flattering color. He lit a cigarette and seemed to cast a heavy gaze upon a couple across the way. The couple were occasionally eyeing everyone in the whole establishment, as if they were on the run from something unseen. Across the way, at an empty pool table that stood near a broken record player, a business man was talking to a sailor, that may have been from any of the ships currently in the port, enjoying a drink before heading out for what he knew may be the end of his life. One look at the sailor's uniform could tell that besides being a Senior Chief Petty Officer, he was in for life.

"Usual crowd it seems, save for a few newcomers outside of us," Leo said, as he eyed the bar. The Admiral was tense as he turned back to face his brother. He then leaned in, "Niles is watching someone," he whispered, "we may have a spy among them." Two nods from Xander and Camilla quickly followed Leo's words. They knew then that it was ill advised to discuss anything crucial.

"Is Sir Corrin safe?" Leo asked, leaning back away, his eyes setting on General Xander.

"...he… is returned to Nohr. He didn't take things well, Leo. The death of Mikoto weighs heavily on him." Xander said, "that Courtesan he found though, she's good for him."

"Azura?" Leo asked, "She was supposedly a Nohrian. But I couldn't find anything about her in any of our records."

"Come now, brother," Camilla said, with a wink, "If dear Corrin has finally found love, we should congratulate him."

"You say that, but you wanted to lay him yourself." Leo shook his head, and ran his right hand's finger through his blonde hair. "What I'm worried about is simple. That woman has too many ties to the Hoshidan Imperial Family. Loose lips sink ships, sister, and I've had enough of our ships sunk at Sevenfold."

"Just because he's engaged with Azura doesn't mean that I can't give him a bit of love," Camilla gasped, raising her hand almost ready to slap the Admiral, but she didn't, "And you've wanted me yourself, Dear Leo, and from that look, you still do." The admiral's face went staunch red, as he bit his lip, looking a bit aghast at Camilla's comment, his mouth hung half open, unable to reply, as much as he wanted to. Camilla simply laughed for a moment, before continuing with a more serious tone, "Now, now, you know what the Hoshidans were using that woman for. I, I guess I feel for her."

"...I can't say I disagree with you, but I must err on the side of caution." Leo tilted his head, "I do have this however," he said, looking around, and casting a quick look towards the sharp-dressed gangster in the corner before handing Camilla a letter. It was a plain manilla envelope without markings but to a trained eye would've been a dead give away that there was something important contained within. "Let's just say this, dear sister," Leo said, looking over at Xander. "General Iago is no friend of mine. He's no friend of Nohr in general, and I'd see him removed from power. But I can't deny his… methods… as cruel as they are, are working."

"On that, I concur," Xander said, "I do not see what father sees in him. The General of the Air Corps is a wicked man, and I fear for what will become of the country should he be allowed to further sully this conflict."

"...to that end, I would like to propose something, as commanders of the Nohrian armed forces. Transfer the Sol, Luna, and Astra squadrons to the Navy."

"You know exactly that Iago will fight you for that." Xander said, "And whatever spell he has on Father will ensure you will lose."

"That's why… I'm doing something big. Camilla, this is your turn. And same for the Navy's hero of Sevenfold," Leo said pointing at Selena. "Commander Selena, I know you're just back from medical leave, but I need your skills: master the Corsair. " He spoke openly, before putting a glare at the same couple that Niles was staring down. "It's got a reputation as the ensign eliminator. It's a beast that only the best pilots will master. But it will become the thing that the Hoshidans fear the most." His words were half-cocked as if he was delivering a propaganda statement, beling his real message.

Selena nodded, "Will do, Sir!" she said proudly, though her half-cocked salute showed a mild disconnection to the order. She then quickly guzzled a pint sized beer stein, spilling some of it slightly onto her red and black civilian dress.

"Don't over do it, Selena!" Odin exclaimed, "We can't have you fall to the forces of ...alcohol." His voice peaked before dropping off as if he had lost his muse for the moment, his own face showing signs of drunkenness.

"I'm not driving your drunk ass home after we pass out in a hangar again," Laslow commented, earning him a half-weighted slap from the redheaded woman.

"Shut up, Laslow. You're drunk already, I'm not." Selena chided, "and I'm not hearing it from you, Odin."

The six all broke out in some laughter, with Leo throwing another glance at the couple in the corner. They had shifted their position, drawing no closer to the officers but something was clearly off about them, and the officers knew it. However without proof, there wasn't much they could do, and they knew it. He tilted his head and rose from his position and walked over to the man behind the piano. After a few words, he walked back to the group, "Have fun tonight." He said, laying down several bills and coins on the bar. "A round of drinks on me for my friends here."

The piano player tapped up a song, one that was a bit louder and more solidly played than the ambience he had been providing for the time. As if acting on cue, Laslow rose from his stool, and grabbed Selena's right hand. "Care to dance, mi'lady?"

"You wish," Selena sneered, her eyes drifting off to the side, before a muffled "Fine, I better enjoy this." Laslow smiled, as she stepped out of the group with him, leaving the others to their own dealings.

"So, Lieutenant, you think of a good name for my plane?" Camilla asked, with a strikingly warm tone as she spoke to him.

Odin shook his head, "I haven't."

"Oh," Camilla said, not as chipper as before, "You seem a bit down, Odin."

"I've just been thinking about a few things since the war began." He shook his head, "I can't really get it off my chest. Not to mention, Laslow and I are infantry."

"Well, I don't think there's anything any of us can do besides fight to win." Camilla tapped her fingers on the desk. "You don't strike me as one who shies from combat."

"I'm not worried about the fighting," Odin shook his head, "I can take whatever the forces of darkness throw at me."

"Oh, is that so?" Camilla asked, "You have feelings for someone then?" she pursed her lips for a moment.

"I… No." Odin blushed, running his hand through his blonde hair. "It's not that. I mean, it kind of is, but it's a bit more complicated than just a crush."

"Ooh, that's intriguing," she said, leaning in. "I wonder who?"

"I can't say." Odin tilted back, "I can't name the one who would be my eternal partner."

"If you can't, can you tell me at least," Camilla said, "is it me?"

"Gods…" Odin gasped, nearly falling back off of the stool. "Why would you think I'm…" He stammered for a moment before actually falling off of the stool and onto his back, with a distinct thud as he struck the hardwood floor.

Camilla let out a chuckle before helping Odin up off the deck, "Alright."

"You were asking about a name for your plane?" Odin shook his head as he looked away from her. "Hmmm… perhaps something that fits you…" He looked towards the wall near the entrance to the bar. "You're transferring to the Corsair, right? So it's not the same plane."

"Yes, the whole squadron will be flying F4U-4 Corsairs. The Wildcat is being pulled from the fleet, Corsairs and Hellcats will be our primary fighters…" Camilla explained.

"Well, I would've called your Wildcat a '_Flower of Fantasy_.'" Odin paused his sentence as he looked at her, "But the Corsair, it's a bit more exotic, don't you think? It needs a soul to its form, and one that matches you. How about '_Bewitching Beauty_'?"

Camilla slightly chuckled as she took a sip from her glass, before lighting a small cigarette. "I think I like it," she said, "Yes, that will be my plane's name." She smiled, looking over at Selena and Laslow who were slowly dancing to the melancholic piano music. "Thank you, Odin." She paused, as she continued to watch them dance for a few moments before turning back around to face the bar, "I suppose after this, I have to ask her what she wants my nose art to be."

"What?" Odin said, raising his eyebrows, "Why?"

"She got more kills than me during the evacuation of the Sevenfold Sanctuary." Camilla said coolly, watching out of the corner of her eye the sharp dressed gangster approach the mysterious couple at the far side of the bar, "It was Captain Percy and the Sol Squadron who did the heavy lifting when we were retreating, not me."

"Sol Squadron?" Odin asked "I heard Admiral Leo mention them."

"Nohrian Army Special Weapons Squadron. They were the ones flying those prop-rear fighters that came to our rescue…" Camilla paused, "I can't say much else, I've never met them." She sighed, taking a drink from her glass, "We can't rely on their cover if we find ourselves at the mercy of Hoshido's guns again."

She turned around to face the dancefloor, looking over at the few bar patrons on it. Most were stumbling to the beat of the band's piano, horns and drums, unable to keep a proper dance after their drinks had gotten into their system. "_There's a raging fire in my heart tonight, growing higher in my soul! There's a raging fire in the sky tonight..!" _The band's singer sang an aviator's song, as the patrons tried to dance, amidst the haze of cigarette smoke, and dim neon-electric lighting. Laslow was in the middle of the crowd with Selena, proving he ever was a dancer.

"Say, you, Laslow and Selena go back before the academy, right?" She asked, squeezing a lime into her drink before taking another sip.

"Yeah, we grew up together, for what it's worth." Odin uncharacteristically was reserved, "His mother's a movie star, and he wanted to be a performer. My mom's a doctor, and Selena's was an aviator. Can't say that we all wound up all too well being soldiers, especially with a war on."

"You're worried about home, aren't you?" Camilla asked, squeezing his right hand lightly.

"I guess you could say that," Odin replied, "I'm, as you know, more energetic usually."

"We all wind up down from time to time, love." Camilla smirked, and stood up. "Why don't you step out on the floor, I'll give you a dance in a moment."

Odin raised his left eyebrow. "But I'm…"

"Don't worry about it," she said turning back and pulling him off the stool. "It'll just be for a bit of fun."

Odin sighed, tipsily turning towards the dancefloor as the song came to an end. At the same moment another group of patrons entered the bar, led by a shorter woman with short blonde hair scruffily held back by a blue ribbon. Her eyes were a reddish brown, thinner than that of a natural Norhian's, and she had freckles across her face. She wore the uniform of a Norhian Naval officer, and had a pilot's wings. Her rank was a bronze leaf, placing her as a Lieutenant-Commander, the same as Selena after her promotion due to heroics during the attack on Sevenfold. "Oh, if it isn't Camilla herself." The woman said pointing at the violet haired woman.

"Scarlet?" Camilla asked, eyeing the woman. "I haven't seen you in forever. You made it to Lieutenant Commander, I see."

"...and Commanding Officer of the one and only _Dragonfire_ squadron." Scarlet said with a smile. "You're only a Captain, Camilla?" She slightly laughed, "I'd figure you'd be an Admiral by now, with your connections."

"I've dodged it. I need the wide skies. I have no intent to be the light of Nohr." Camilla replied, "Leader of the _Revenant Knights_." She replied, sitting back down next to the woman. "If you're with the _Dragonfire_s, then the _Lady Edelgard_ must be here."

"She is, we just pulled into port, the _Rigain Celica_ is not too long either." Scarlet said, solemnly. "Though, damn this war. Last thing we needed was actual action."

"True enough, though I'm now beginning to wonder a few things." Camilla said, leaning back, resting the back of her elbows on the bar counter. "Hey, Odin, I'll be with you in a moment."

"Sister!" An energetic woman's voice carried over the ambience of the bar, causing Camilla to turn her head, only to come face to face with Elise, who promptly wrapped her in a tight hug.

"Oh, Elise, you're off shift?" Camilla asked, giving a shrug towards Odin, who turned back towards the group. "Sorry. That dance will have to wait."

"Are you offering dances to people, sis?" Elise asked. "Are you in love?"

Camilla and Odin both tilted themselves backwards. "No. It was just for fun." Camilla answered, shaking her head.

Elise prompt released Camilla from her hug, "In that case," she said, looking over at Odin. "Maybe I can steal that dance?"

"Go for it, Elise," Camilla said, "I've got some catch up to do with Scarlet anyway."

"Hey! Wait, don't I get any say in this?" Odin asked as Elise promptly grabbed his right hand and started dragging him towards the dance floor.

"Have fun!" Camilla said back as she turned to talk to the blond woman.

_Location: Skies over Sevenfold Sanctuary_  
_Date: 6th Of July_  
_Time: Unknown_

Hinata breathed heavily, his heart racing, his palms sweaty enough to make his gloves loose. A primal fear was running through his mind as he scanned the skies around him. Visibility was bad, and that was an understatement. Thick clouds and heavy rain dominated the sky. Water rolled off the canopy, making the visibility of skies around his damaged fighter even worse.

A flash of lightning. He felt himself jump. He had turned back from the main group due to an oil leak. It was then, while awaiting permission to return to the carrier, that he heard panic on the radio. The enemy's reinforcements had arrived. Terrified words of comrades. A plane that was only described as "backwards". And death. He could hear them die. Friends, comrades, those he looked up to. Their lives cut short by the bullets of a phantom fighter. How could they, how could he have known an enemy Ace would be among their foes.

He thought he saw a dark shadow moving through the clouds. His eyes were jumping at illusions now, and he could feel the terror in his body, crushing him from the inside, ripping him apart at the seams. He never imagined a reality where he wasn't in control. And right now, there wasn't much but helplessness for him. He wasn't the "best slice", he wasn't a hunter. He was the prey. "This is Hinata from Toku-Goten Shi. Request permission for landing."

"Request denied. Keep that aircraft airborne. We can't risk the enemy bomber reinforcements from finding our carriers. Rejoin the attack squadron and fight back."

"My plane's losing oil pressure and is in danger of crashing."

"We repeat, you cannot return to the carrier at this time."

Hinata turned his plane, careful to not push the engine too hard, knowing the engine could seize at any moment. He swallowed audibly as he heard another desperate cry for help over the radio. "Toku-Goten Go… someone help. Norhian pusher on my…" He couldn't make out who she was, her last words were a report of the enemy. The sharp crash and then sudden radio silence indicated her demise.

Then out of the gray, he swore he saw another aircraft. He turned his plane to avoid a collision, and broke into an area of clear skies. His eyes widened with fear. The other aircraft was a dark colored plane, marked in red and gold. A squadron emblem of a golden sun sheathed in orange was near the rear of the plane. The wings had the roundel of Nohr. And the plane's propeller was on its rear. The Exhaust pipes from the weird looking plane glew an incandescent orange in the dim skies. He hoped the enemy didn't see the approach they just made. His pulse quickened. It felt like he had been running for miles earlier, now he felt as if his chest would explode. He tilted the stick, and increased the throttle, he didn't care if the plane's engine burned down: he had to fight if he wanted to live, and there was one clear thought: he did not want to die.

He turned the plane back into the clouds, catching sight of multiple four-engined behemoths of planes. Rippling flashes of orange from the bombers' tracers cut through the air, and he could hear thuds and splashes of bombs from below. Another Nohrian plane, a twin-boomed pusher flew past. It had an emblem of five shooting stars in a green tinge on its tail. He swallowed, not wanting to accept dying here. Frantically, he looked around: where was that first foe? Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw it: the foe was on his six. "This is Hinata from Toku-Goten Shi. I've encountered the enemy. Prop-rear fighter on my six. Multiple bombers at 2 o'clock high. Prop-rear fighters in formation with them. Need support!" He felt himself seize at the controls, turning his Zero as hard as he could, downward, flipping into the inverted. His vision went from hazy to hazy red as the blood rushed to his head. It flipped to the side, returning to proper orientation, completing the split S. He breathed heavily, thinking for a moment he evaded that Nohrian.

The report of the enemy's guns excised what hope he had. He couldn't see the foe, but he was dead to rights, of that, he was certain. There was a pattering of metal on metal, reverberating through the plane as the rounds bounced at odd angles away. He hadn't evaded him, and now he was lined up for the enemy to claim the kill. His eyes widened, he pulled back the stick: there wasn't anything he could do, and he panicked. The plane shook as the nose ripped skyward, bleeding speed immediately, but it was no escape, instead it was an admission of defeat.

"Bail out." He wasn't sure who or what told him, had he even heard the command at all, or was he just hearing his own mind desperately tell him to survive even though he would be a coward in doing so. He just instinctively ripped open the canopy and jumped. He felt the wind and rain rip at his exposed skin as he was thrown helplessly aloft. Blood trickled down the side of his face, stinging his eye, and obscuring his vision. The fireball from the remains of his plane erupted in front of him. He felt something strike his leg and his world begin to spin as he pulled the rip-cord on his parachute. His eyes found his leg, and the piece of shrapnel protruding from it.

He wordlessly screamed as his chute halted his fall, and below him, the sea rose to swallow him into its depths. The acrid smoke from the battle filled the air, and as he hit the water he felt himself being pulled downward, choking as water covered his head.

Then he woke up. His eyes adjusted to the cool darkness of his room back in Hoshido. His left arm and right leg were still in shooting pain, and the doctor had explained he may never recover- he lived by mere miracle: a Hoshidan boat had recovered him from the ocean before he would've drowned in the ocean's waves. He had, as a warrior, been thoroughly defeated. He knew that none of those unusual planes were defeated at Sevenfold. The bombers did a number on the landing craft, allowing the Nohrian forces precious time to mount their retreat before a second onslaught.

His defeat was, as command had told him, not in vain: he had survived to tell of his encounter: many who had engaged the new foes were not so lucky, for instance, Captain Reina hadn't survived her brush with the so-called "Sol Squadron". His report was important, those fighters were unknown to Hoshido's command, and Hoshido needed every bit of information they could scrounge up on the new Nohrian threat. The Zero was an agile angel over the eastern skies, and it easily bested Nohr's fighters in most engagements. The clashes with Nohrian-backed Mokusho proved as much, as did the overwhelming dominance that had been Hoshido's sweep of the south. It was only that one moment, those strange Pusher-prop aircraft that had been able to mount a true threat to them, and Hoshido's tacticians, including the esteemed Yukimura were desperate for information that could lead them to figuring out the right tactic. Hinata knew that, he knew it well, but he still felt a failure. He couldn't dare call himself a Samurai. He had failed. Failed his own honor, when he hit the silk that day.

He let out a cold pant, as he wiped away the sweat from his brow, stumbling through the dark to the faucet, splashing the cool water on to his face. He felt a mix of emotions in his chest as he looked around the dark room. Pain, terror, and rage were dominating his thoughts as he stumbled towards the door. It was still late in the night. Through the window, the moon was low in the night sky, full, and a blue haze filled the dark sky. Two searchlights illuminated the bottoms of distant clouds that hung over the ocean. A battleship and a carrier's vague silhouettes sat on the horizon. Hinata sighed, rubbing his stinging leg as he stepped outside, taking in a deep breath before letting out a sigh.

"Kya!" There was a sudden shriek that was quickly silenced, before a "Oh, you scared me." Hinata recognized the voice, that of the Imperial Princess, Sakura. The girl had been a companion to him ever since he was shot down. She was a trained medic, and had been overseeing his treatment since his return to Shirasagi, and they were far from strangers as a result. "Hinata, why are you awake? Nightmares again?" Hinata simply nodded in silent response, sitting down cross legged, staring out over the balcony of the building at the sea below. "From when you were shot down?" Hinata nodded again.

He sighed as he felt her place her cool hands on his shoulder. "Sakura, I…" He started to say, before turning to face her, "I still feel as if I failed. I was born and raised a samurai. And yet, in my first real fight, I fled. I'm a coward who has abandoned his honor." He looked up, "Reina and the others, they died when I did not. I should be one telling you to be confident, to know that the enemy will gun for the weakest link." He sighed, placing his head in his hands, "A samurai is the edge of his blade, knows no fear, for to show fear is to invite defeat. The enemy will cut down the weak."

Sakura shook her head, "The oath of Bushido. Just like my Brother, Lord Ryoma speaks of." She sighed, sitting down next to the wounded man. "But you were awarded the Order of the Golden Kite Seventh Class by him for a reason, Hinata. Your honor is not gone by your defeat. Your sacrifices brought us valuable information…"

"I still lived when others died, and by cowardice, not victory." Hinata shook his head. "I should be dead, my Lady!"

"I do not believe so, Hinata." Sakura rubbed his shoulder, "What you did is not cowardice. You were defeated in honorable combat, but you lived to tell the tale. That knowledge will aid the others. War is bloody and terrible, and I cannot scarce imagine what you went through during the battle, but I know this, Honor is still in your hands."

They sat for a moment, before Hinata shakily rose to his feet. "I will retire to my quarters again, my lady." He said with a formal bow, before stepping back into his dark room. Sakura nodded before walking along the wooden catwalk back towards the other end of the building. Her eyes were suddenly blinded by the light of a flashlight. A surprised looking guard quickly raised his rifle as a look of relief crossed his face.

"Your imperial highness!" He said, popping to a salute that Sakura waved off. "I had been told you were not present in your quarters and have been sent to find you."

Sakura shook her head, and sighed, her lower lip shaking for a moment. She knew why the soldiers were always on high alert around her, but it didn't help her state of mind. "I was merely out for a walk. And I am in charge of treating Hinata, am I not?" The soldier bucked himself up, saying nothing, but the fear could be felt from him, and that made her even more uneasy. "At ease." She said, calmly, trying to diffuse the situation.

"I am sorry, your Imperial highness." He said, his right hand shaking. "But after Lady Mikoto was assassinated, we fear for your safety."

"I am aware" Sakura sighed, "However, the Prime Minister worries far too much." She stood there silently for a brief few moments, "I shall return to my quarters, tell your seniors as much, and that you have done well."

_Location: Ruined Village, Western Hoshido_  
_Date: 25th Of November; 1st Year of open war_  
_Time: 11:10 Local_

Hinoka could scarcely believe her eyes, which quickly began to water with the horrific sights laid out before her. She knew ahead of time that she'd be arriving in a village that had been reduced to rubble, but never truly understood how bad it was until her plane had touched down at what remained of the airstrip. Bomb craters had ruined most of the village's runway, making the landing rough, but she had managed to get wheels down safely.

Her boots crunched the gravel and ash as she walked out into the remains of the village. Nothing remained: at least nothing livable. She had seen the devastation that the Mokusho wrought in their wild and reckless attacks. However, those were at least in some fashion, aimed at military targets. This was different, and it felt like someone had taken a hammer to her gut as she looked upon the devastation. Buildings were crumbled and ruined from the blasts of high-explosive ordnance, if not burned to the ground by napalm. Charred remains of people lined the bomb-blasted streets. It wasn't an attack by the Mokusho, no it was Nohrian regulars. A bomber raid had happened upon the village the night before, and in that instant, lives shattered. Families burned to death in the napalm flame from the Nohrian incendiary attack.

The stench was unbearable, the sickening smell of charred flesh. The air was acrid, as fires still burned in places, amidst the rubble. There were some pained cries from the dying, as few survivors walked the area. Most living people were like her, military support sent to assess the damage taken by the village after Nohr struck. The pattern of bombs dropped would give some clue to where the Nohrians had struck from. Something that could become a vector for a counterattack.

Men worked at carting off the deceased around her, as she began to cry. Her eyes watered as they were stung by the smoke drifting through the air, but it was more than just pain. She could scarcely believe the devastation. How could anyone, any live human being, bring this much death to the world? The people of this village weren't military. This wasn't a base, the airstrip was only used for civilian purposes. It had a guard that had fired at the bombers as they were beginning their attack runs, but it was neither a military nor industrial target. These people made their living off the land. They were farmers, weavers, taken far away from the industry of war. It wasn't war, it wasn't a battle. This was a wholesale slaughter.

She paused, in the distance, she heard a younger girl cry. She turned, and nearly ran at full speed in the direction of the cries. She stopped as the cries turned to sniffles, the before she heard her cry out in horror once more. She started running again, hoping to find the young girl, praying she wasn't entrapped in a building about to burn in the continued fires that harried the few in the village.

Hinoka swallowed with a grimace when she found her, the young girl, her hair frizzled and her face covered in ash and tears. The young girl's brown eyes were reddened and filled with tears that streaked down her dirtied and injured face. She was wrapped in a burned blanket, her right hand seared from touching something hot, and in front of her were a couple, presumably her parents. Hinoka shook, closing her eyes from shock, the couple were clearly dead: there was hardly any left of their bodies, partially protected by rubble but scorched to bone in parts. What wasn't burned was crushed and bloodied.

The girl shook, and cried, her expression blank and cataonic as she was in that instant put through horror no child, nay, no living person should be put through. Yet, Hinoka knew that whatever terror that girl was feeling now, must pale in comparison to what she had felt the night before, when the bombers were overhead, bringing death upon these poor people. She knelt beside the girl, "Hey…" she said, in the most comforting tone she could.

The girl shied away, trying in vain to wipe away the tears. "Mother… father…" she said repeatedly, as if she couldn't say anything else. To Hinoka, who had recently lost her own mother to the blast of an assassin's bomb, she knew deep inside that she had a feeling she knew what this one was going through at this moment, but couldn't imagine what it must have been like to lose her whole village in the process.

"...What's your name?" Hinoka asked slowly, placing her hand on the girl's head.

"M-mozu… Mozume…" the girl replied, stopping herself for the moment. "My name is Mozume…"

"Can you tell me anything about what happened?" Hinoka asked after pulling the girl into a hug.

She sniffled and shook her head. "Mother and Father came into my room last night… they were scared. Then everything was… on fire. The sky was falling… They took me to a hole in the mountain and went back… and…" She stopped before erupting into an uncontrollable series of cries and sobs. "They're gone!"

Hinoka wanted to tell her it would be ok, but she pushed the thought back, simply hugging and trying in anyway she could to comfort the girl. She didn't break her frown, nor did her own eyes stop watering, as she turned her head looking over at two soldiers who came up to assist.

"We've got a lot of work to do," she said to them. "We need to get what aid we can to these people."

"Mozume… I'm sorry I can't bring your mother and father back, but I promise, I will stop the ones that did this." She said, releasing the girl from the embrace. "I will defeat Nohr with my own two hands. I swear this on my life."

* * *

**Weapon Profile:  
_Empress-Class Carrier (Queen Arete, Lady Edelgard, Rigain Celica, Lady Julia)  
_**Designation: Aircraft Carrier  
Weight: 36,600 Tons  
Length: 872 Feet  
Beam: 147 Feet, 6 inches  
Height: 84 Feet, 3 Inches  
Draft: 27 Feet, 5 Inches

Armament:  
Dual-Purpose Secondary Battery: 4 Turrets, 2 Guns each. Caliber: 5.1 Inches;  
4 Turrets, 1 Gun each. Caliber: 5.1 Inches  
Maximum Range: 15.2 Nautical Miles  
Fire Control System: Radar and Visual Guidance system.  
Anti-Aircraft Artillery:  
17 Turrets, 4 Guns each. Caliber: 40mm.  
78 Gun emplacements. Caliber: 20mm.

Armor:  
Main Belt: 2.5 to 4 Inches  
Conning Tower: 3 to 5 Inches  
Pilot House Roof: 1.5 Inches

Power:  
8 Boilers, 4 Turbines. 150,000 Shaft Horsepower  
Maximum Speed: 32.7 Knots  
Range: 15,000 Nautical Miles at 15 Knots

Crew: 2,220 officers and men  
Air Group: Up to 110 Aircraft.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Not much to say here honestly.


	7. Chapter 5: The Sun to Tarnish in the Sky

**Chapter 5: The Sun to Tarnish in the Sky**

* * *

"_Ah, is mommy proud of her little boy today? This kiss you give, it is never, ever going to fade away" - A melody about a Bomber in a famous Air Raid._

_Location: Yasego, Hoshido_  
_Date: 23rd Of May; Two years prior._  
_Time: 08:15 Local_

The sky was a bright blue, and the sun high in the sky as a man in a freshly pressed military uniform, the cracker-jack white and blues of the Imperial Hoshidan Navy, walked up a flight of broken concrete and stone stairs. Around him, a light breeze blew cherry petals from the trees, putting a pink tinge to the ground. A few birds chirped as they fluttered in the forest that lined the path up to the man's destination.

Behind him, he held a bouquet of flowers, pink carnations wrapped carefully. He walked purposefully, taking care to not scuff his dress shoes as he reached the top of the hill, his destination, a shrine, and the residence of one very near his heart, in sight. "Mitama…" He said under his breath, subtly giving himself a once over before approaching the shrine's entrance. His white-and-blue undershirt was still unstained, and his neckerchief was properly tied off. He gave a quick courteous bow to an elderly woman at the front, who was slowly sweeping the tatami flooring with an old broom that like the woman holding it, had seen better days.

"Ah, Hisame, you have returned from basic training?" The woman said, stopping sweeping for a moment to talk, and used the broom as a cane.

"I have." He said with a nod, "I wish to speak to Mitama-chan."

The elderly woman lightly laughed, "She's tending to her room at the moment, I'm sure she'd appreciate it if you went up to her."

"Thank you Chihara." Hisame said with a smile as he walked into the building and smartly turned up a flight of stairs. His footsteps were light and sure, his pace slowed though as he approached a room that was ever familiar to him. He knocked three times and snapped his feet to position, assuming parade rest, which naturally and formally hid the flowers without leaving any hint.

"My best friends are snores. But who has come to my door? The master of chores…" a sleepy-sounding woman replied, before cracking the door open for a moment. "...Sir! Oh!" her starry eyes widened as she saw the man standing before her, she quickly gave him a once over, not expecting to see a Navy sailor at her door. His smiling face and straightened hair that slightly protruded between his face and the brim of his rounded sailor hat, "...Hisame? You're back from training?"

"Mitama, I am." He said, "Good to see you."

She nodded, moving forward, only to be stopped by Hisame holding out the bouquet. She took the bouquet and smiled after giving them a quick smell "These Flowers, for me? How very thoughtful of you, I think that they're great."

"I'm glad you like them, Mitama." Hisame nodded, giving her a hug. She sighed and leaned into the embrace, before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Say, how have things been since I was away?"

"Well…" Mitama started to say with a sigh, only for Hisame to catch sight of her room.

"What happened in there?" Hisame quickly asked.

"A tornado hit, and my room is in shambles. Just like I told them." Mitama sighed, "It wasn't on purpose this time, I didn't know you were done with your training with the Navy yet."

Hisame laughed, "You don't need to ruin your room to spend time with me." He said, flashing a smile, and giving her a kiss, which she happily returned. "But, just like old times, huh? I'm more than happy to help clean it up."

"Thank you so much, Hisame." She said, taking hold of the sailor's hand, "My love."

_Location: Hoshidan Destroyer, Haruusagi; North Vallan Sea_  
_Date: 22nd Of November; 1st Year of open war_  
_Time: 00:21 Local_

It was a dark and cloud covered night. There was light rain and the sea was high. The _Haruusagi,_ a Hoshidan _Harekaze-class_ destroyer rolled heavily as the waves roiled over her steel decks. The ship's search lights turned and panned the sea as it turned to avoid a chunk of ice that had fallen from a nearby iceberg. Dead empty as far as the lookout's eyes could see. The searchlights were shuttered as the ship rose up and over the top of a wave before crashing down. The icy water sloshed up and onto the weather deck of the ship with each wave the ship hit. The searchlights were shuttered on once more, nothing in the darkness but ice and waves that sent a chill down fresher, newer sailors' spines. It had been like this before, but the sea was even rougher tonight. There hadn't been a sighting of the enemy: Nohr, wherever the remains of her fleet was, hadn't made itself evident yet. The ship took another roll, and just below the bridge on the destroyer's small mess hall, Leading Seaman Hisame yawned, tired and worn down from the seasickness that had dogged him throughout the day. He had gotten himself ready for his nightly watch atop the ship's mast, but sought to rouse himself with a cup of tea.

The Ship listed hard to starboard and then slammed down, what must have been three or four meters as it crossed a pair of waves. The ship then began turning to port, just a few degrees, avoiding a chunk of ice as lightning flashed in the distance. It was terrible timing crossing the storm in the grasp of the "Bottomless Canyon", a stretch of sea that separated the Nohrian and Hoshidan continents, where ocean currents made for treacherous sailing even in modern vessels, like the Harekaze class. Here, the ship's light weight, displacing a meager 2450 tons, put it truly at the mercy of the seas. And that mercy was not one Hisame was feeling at the moment. He was lucky enough to not have to be outside, but with his watch soon approaching that wouldn't be for long, and he felt every pitch, every roll, and while he long had his sea legs, it didn't avert the gut churning sickness that rose in his stomach. The destroyer was unfortunate, her Radar system was still lacking vital components before she was sent to sea, forcing the ship's crew to rely on keen-eyed sentries, and Hisame was given the duty tonight.

He sighed, pulling out a letter he had received at the day's mail-call, but hadn't the time to read. His heart tugged at him as he ran his finger along the lettering on the envelope's cover. There was only one who wrote like that, and he opened the letter carefully, wanting to read a message from his beloved before beginning his nightly watch atop the _Haruusagi_'s mast. He carefully took a drink of his tea, bracing himself to not spill any as the ship took another roll. Finishing the cup, he set it down and finally fully opened his letter, which brought a smile to his weary face. A faded picture of a woman adorned in traditional Hoshidan garb, her light pink hair pulled into two bundles that rolled down her shoulders, held in place by bamboo and cloth. She held a yomi fuda in her left hand and an ivory calligraphy brush crested in a golden emblem of Hoshido in her right. She wore a wide, but soft smile, and one could practically see stars in her eyes. She stood in front of a traditional Hoshidan building, a shrine one might figure at a glance, it rising a few floors, with each layer having a roof that extended out ornately from the white-colored structure. A distinct archway covered the path behind her, and the whole picture was set in a wooded area, surrounded by Hoshidan pine and cherry trees. A gap in the trees showed a singular mountain peak rising to snow-covered heights in the distance, and a lone plane, likely a Zero, was overhead. Another picture was covered by a thick brown sheet, held in place by a couple paperclips. On it was written, _"For my love his eyes, No other may set a gaze, Behind sheets of silk"_, which immediately, he knew what that picture was of, and shied away, slipping the pictures into his breast pocket.

His tired face was now set with a luminescent blush as he read the letter, _"My love Hisame, Though the Navy has claimed you, I love you ever"_, it began with a haiku, as was something he came to expect. He kept his smile, as his upper lip shook, the overwhelming feeling of homesickness building in his chest. _"I know that you chose; To protect and fight for us, But I miss you now." _She always did enjoy Haiku, and was set to become a poet, unlike him, she wasn't set for military service, and remained firmly at home in Hoshido. She was, to him, his every motivation to fight. The letter which went on to reminisce over how they used to spend days together doing simple things such as cleaning her room, which induced a slight chuckle out of him, as he recalled those days that he had spent with her. How angry he had gotten over little things, and now that he was out to sea, it felt so small. He sighed, and softly, nearly whispered, "I love you too, Mitama," to himself as he heard the ship's bell be struck to call the time, that he'd write her back as soon as he could. He couldn't be with her, but that didn't mean he'd ever let her go without a word or two. He slipped the letter into a protective sleeve: he'd read it again during his watch, he figured as he climbed out the hatch onto the ship's deck. He struck a bell and waved at the sentry who was perched, almost precariously high in the crow's nest of the destroyer.

"Took you long enough, Hisame," the older watch stander yelled from his position, waving for Hisame to begin his climb to the steel box suspended over the ship's mast. Two lights flickered from the destroyer's aft, followed by another sweep of searchlights. The waves had died down, much to Hisame's relief as he affixed his climbing lanyard and began climbing the ladder up to his watch station. The wind, on the other hand, had not, and the rain was picking up. He climbed the ladder slowly but surely, eventually knocking on the hatch to the crow's nest from below, which was opened by the other man. "Nothing to report," the other man said, "The weather's bad, and it's pretty bad being up here." He yawned, "but there's nothing here but us and ice."

_Sixteen miles away_  
_Location: Nohrian Battleship Brynhildr_  
_Time: 00:29 Local_

Two men stared at a Cathode-Ray Tube screen, its green phosphor light moved around at a steady rate, flashing with a few distinct blobs as the radar feed it was indicating continued its constant sweep. "That's definitely a ship," one of the two said, as he pointed at the indicator. On a nearby board, three men were looking at several charts. The man who said the indication was a ship turned back, and faced the charts. "That object has been moving at a constant 18 knots north, northeast. The wind is blowing at 20 knots in a similar direction, however, this is the Bottomless Canyon, ice flows here are dominated by the ocean currents. There's no doubt in my mind that is a ship of some kind, sir."

"Thank you, OS3." A blonde man said, looking up from the charts, "Brynhildr is alone, we're screening for the Carriers, and moving independently to keep the enemy from catching an actual heading on our fleet. If that is a ship, she's Hoshidan." The man turned to the left, his uniform now clear in the dim red lights of the ship's Combat Command Central. His uniform was sharp, featuring several golden buttons, and like that of any Nohrian officer, it rose as a choker around his neck, and was likewise trimmed in purple. However his shoulder boards were different. They were a striking crimson, and were adorned with a woven anchor and five silver stars- the insignia of an Admiral, but not merely any Admiral. This man was the commander of the entire Nohrian Navy, Fleet Admiral Leo. He grabbed a cover that sat on a chair behind him, and raised it sharply, the crest on its forefront glinting in the red lights. Where a normal Nohrian officer, flag or line, would have a Dragon in front of two anchors, his was different: A macabre skull set in front of two crossbones- the death's head. He brought his cover up above his brow and placed it on his head using both of his hands, and as he did, one could feel tension building in the room. The moment he returned his hands to a more normal position, the very next words to leave his mouth were simple, and they were an order everyone understood. "Action Stations."

As the words left the admiral's mouth there was silent and swift acknowledgement. Two other men snapped to positions as another picked up a phone, hailing the Bridge. "General Quarters. Rouse the Crew and prepare for combat."

Seconds later a frantic ringing of bells resounded throughout the ship's hull. Followed by an announcement across the 1 Main Circuit. "GENERAL QUARTERS! GENERAL QUARTERS! ALL HANDS RISE AND MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS."

Leo nodded at the men in the room, "Send a Sentry to Crows, and identify that ship. Have the Main Battery manned and made ready in all respects."

"Aye-aye!" the man with the phone said, "Sentry to Crows, and identify the unknown vessel. Main battery to be manned and made ready in all respects." He repeated back before saying into the phone, "Bridge, this is Combat Central, Send a Sentry to Crows and identify… Understood." The man paused, turning back to the Admiral, "Report from the Bridge, Sir!"

"Very well." Leo said, calmly, tapping his fingers on his chair's armrest.

"Ship identified, Hoshidan destroyer." The man said, his face stern as he faced the Admiral.

"Unfortunate. They never were here, all hands lost in the storm. Send her to the Abyss. Have the GMC make the main battery ready to fire in all respects." Leo clenched his fist.

"Aye-Aye!" The man responded turning back. "This is Combat to Artillery. Make the main battery ready to fire in all respects."

There were a few tense moments before a red light lit next to the phone's patch panel. The phone operator quickly connected to it, and then nodded, "Main Battery is ready to fire in all respects, sir."

"Good! FC1!" Leo said, turning towards another man in the red room. "This is your floor now. Sink that Destroyer."

The man audibly swallowed as he turned to face the scope. He turned a knob and focused a radar beam onto the blob. "Range, 26000 yards. Bearing 22 degrees 36 minutes. Speed, 17.9 Knots. Our heading and speed are loaded from the gyros..." He turned dial after dial, his eyes scanning back and forth between the data displayed on systems in front of him. He could feel the palpable pressure on his shoulders: the eyes of his chief, of his division officer, the very head Admiral of the entire Navy were staring at him. He turned one more dial before pulling a handle that appeared no different from the grip of a pistol out from the console and sighed, a sense of relief in his voice as a light turned on, red for the time being, "The data is entered, turrets Abel, Baker and Charlie will now position." He said, turning to another sailor in the room. "Guns, it's now in your hands. Our target is a Destroyer, she's sailing away from us at an angle of 11 degrees."

"Good work, FC1." A burly looking sailor with a scar on his right eye and two golden anchors on his collar said, as he pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, lighting it with a match, from a matchbook. The match had a crude depiction of a Hoshidan and the matchbook was emblazoned, "REMEMBER SEVENFOLD SANCTUARY!" He took a quick whiff of the smoke before picking up a phone. "Turret Captains. Have the men load Mark 8 Super Heavy Shells! Send those Hoshidans to meet Anankos in hell!" the Chief said. A few seconds passed, another light. This one was green, and the Chief reached down, gripping the handle. The original light lit green, and the Chief pulled back another handle. A bell sounded throughout the ship. It was frantic, but rhythmic, and unlike the General Quarters alarm earlier. Any sailor who had served any time on the vessel knew the sound: the sixteen inch guns were about to fire.

Leo leaned in, "The Hoshidans cannot know we were even here. None of them survive."

The gunnery chief nodded, "Roger, Sir!" he replied with a salute. He pulled a trigger. The bells stopped. And then there was a tremendous "Thud" that reverberated throughout the belly of the steel beast. He pulled the second trigger. That awful sound rippled again. And then the third.

Three turrets, three guns, nine in total. The blast resounded around the Battleship, ripping across the waves. There was a plume of fire and smoke that came off the ship's port side, and the guns dropped back down, ready to be reloaded and be fired once more.

Inside the turret ring, a shirtless man turned to his compatriots, "Reload! Give them hell!".

"Reload, Aye!" another man said turning back to the other sailors in the gunhouse. They were quickly tying ropes off to massive cannon shells that were as tall as some of the men and women in the gunhouse. Then using bruteforce and rope-handled pulleys three teams of sailors all pulled the shells to the center of the room in a seemingly fluid motion. Then with sharp clang, metal clasps were fastened around the shells and then a lever was pulled by each, and a hydraulic system lifted the shells aloft, to be loaded into the guns. It hadn't even taken the crew some twenty seconds to move 3 shells, each weighing over 2700 pounds. And in ten more, the team overhead will have loaded the guns. A handful more, and the Fire Controlmen will have calculated the adjustments needed to hit the target.

The magazine Leading Petty Officer smiled, "Good work, keep 'em coming. As soon as those guns have fired, get the next shells loaded."

_Location: Hoshidan Destroyer, Haruusag_i

Hisame let out a sigh as the man he had relieved started climbing down the mast. Then out of the corner of his eye he swore he saw a flash. It was only for a moment, and it wasn't even readily in his field of view, but the rain reminded him of the storm. Lightning, and it would certainly have him jumping at shadows all night, he figured. He sighed as the searchlights came on, and his fingers felt for the letter in his pocket,hoping it wasn't soaked to being ruined. He hadn't even taken his post for half a minute, and his heart was already dragging him back to Mitama.

There was a sudden cry from below. He couldn't make it out, and it made him jump. Something snapped. He suddenly felt as if his heart dropped out of his chest, as a warmth overcame him. He felt weightless, unable to make sense of what was going on. The world had gone silent. Not even the sound of wind and rain, or the ever churning of the destroyer's engines. Something was happening, and it was bad. He felt a shock, something hit him like he had been punched, by a truck. There was a plume of radiant orange light, and it was blinding, and it was in that moment, when he finally heard someone calling his name, that he realized: he was falling, and before his eyes, the _Haruusagi _was shattered, the sea aflame, as chunks of the ship were falling with him. He wanted to scream, but there wasn't anything left in his lungs, and the water hit him fast. The blow was as fierce as what tore him from the ship. "Mitama…." He thought one last time, the world becoming an icy black.

_Location: Nohrian Battleship Brynhildr_

"Admiral, report from the Bridge. Lookout reports… direct hit on the Hoshidan destroyer. Seven shells on target. Two splashes. There is a report of fire, and it appears that the destroyer has been blown into three sections. She's sunk, sir." A sailor said, holding a salute. "Our Rangefinding salvo put her under."

Leo saluted back, "Good. Continue with the second volley."

"Right away, sir!" the Sailor said, dropping his salute, before turning back to face the others. "Continue with the second volley!"

"Continue with the second volley, aye!" The voices echoed back. The Gunnery chief pulled his lever. The shot alarm rang. There were a few tense moments. The chief pulled the trigger. The alarm silenced, bang, bang, bang. Flashes in the dark. Shells away, headed straight towards the wreck of what was once a Hoshidan destroyer.

Leo stood up, "Get me Bridge. Take us to the target. Ready the Naval Infantry. Once we've secured the target's annihilation, we can secure from General Quarters."

_Location: Cheve Proving Grounds_  
_Date: 28th Of November; 1st Year of open war_  
_Time: 13:13 Local_

Percy breathed hard with excitement as he flew through the sky over the training grounds as a large-scale training engagement was beginning to unfold around him. Now this was a challenge, he thought as he scanned the skies. He spotted the silvery dots against the desert sky, "There they are, approaching head on from what looks like 12 miles, at 1:30. Sophie, Nyx, keep the sections tight. Those Juilet-Twos have big guns on their nose." He said, as he raised the throttle. "And the regular Papa-Five-Ones are a ready match for our Ascenders."

"Hear you loud and clear, Hero." Sophie acknowledged, pulling her aircraft upward, and it began climbing at roughly 5 degrees, beginning to lag behind Percy's which had maintained level flight.

"You know the drill, Scatterbrain." Percy responded, rolling his eyes. "We snap-punch their flight leader, and target the new warbirds. Copy, Abracadabra?"

"Copied, Hero." Nyx said, her plane diving slightly.

"Sol Squadron, keep pace with the flight leaders." Percy finished, "Flight one, you're on me, Flight two follow Scatterbrain, Flight three, stay on Abracadabra."

"Roger!" A chorus of replies answered the Sol Squadron leader. A rough fight was about to begin as the OPFOR squadron, the "Ghost Riders" were approaching.

Below the aerial action, a tank rolled through the desert. Dirt caked onto its tracks, and splashed up onto its drab grey hull. Its rolled front armor rose sharply, before sloping backwards. It had a rounded turret with a long cannon. Alongside the cannon, which clearly had a muzzle-brake at its end was another gun, which was much narrower. On the front of the chassis was the wide open Driver's view port, and next to it, a ball turret containing a 12.7mm gun. The commander's hatch was atop the tank, also wide open to the outside, and mounted on a ring around the hatch was another belt-fed machine gun. It was a standard Nohrian Medium tank, modified for Flamethrower and Pillbox elimination operations: the M4A6R3 "Bolganone".

The commander of the tank was a woman wearing the absolute minimum of clothes that she could get away with, almost shameless in her appearance, her longer blonde hair flowing with the wind as the tank made its way through the desert.

"Gods, it's so hot!" The tank's driver, a woman with long pink hair, complained. "It's supposed to be almost winter and I'm just burning up!"

"I'd tell you to take off your clothes, but you'd drive this tank nude." The commander said, "And I don't think any of us would appreciate that, Soleil."

Soleil sighed in response. "How do you take it back there, Nina? Velouria?"

Silence was her answer.

A crackling sound from the radio, "Tank Platoon Charlie, begin combat drill."

The Commander dropped into the tank, closing the hatch, and taking her seat. "Close the viewport, Soleil."

"This isn't cool," Soleil shook her head, continuing her complaints about the heat as sweat dripped from her forehead, "Oh well, let's get this over with, Ophelia." She reached over and slid a bulky plate into position in the front of the tank, then tightened down the plate's internal thumbscrews.

"Target sighted," the gunner, another woman, who's hair was in a bob-cut with a distinct white band said, "Get a HESH round loaded."

"Loading HESH." The loader, a girl who's hair was in two braided pigtails replied. She turned around, and placed a cannon shell into the breach of the cannon, and closed it, securing the breach with a hand-wheel.

"Commence firing, Velouria!" Ophelia ordered, as she stared out of the sights of a periscope. There was a sudden thwump and the tank rocked back, with the breach block of the cannon slamming back as a cloud of smoke and hot gas obscured the tank's view for a few moments. A shower of debris rained in front of the tank as it turned and began moving with the turret aimed in the same direction. The simulated enemy target was nothing but splinters and busted concrete after the 90mm cannon had landed a direct hit.

"Next target! Take it out while moving!" A commanding voice said across the radio.

"You heard the commander; engage on sight." Ophelia ordered.

The tank bounced as it drove across the rocky desert. "Loaded!" Nina, the loader, said, as she finished loading another round into the gun's firing chamber. The turret turned to the tank's port side, it's electric drive whining as it turned, to keep its sight fixed. The tank bounced again, but as it did, again sounded the thwump sound of the 90mm cannon's discharge. The round exploded on the target, another direct hit scored.

"Excellent, Luminary Maiden. Keep going. Next round is anti-infantry. Show us what the Bolganone is built for!" further orders came in from the radio.

"Firesweep time?" Soleil asked, looking back from the driver's seat of the tank, her eyes showing some excitement despite the consistent complaints about the heat.

"Yep. Sounds like it." Velouria responded, "Nina, load Canister rounds."

"Loading a canister round." Nina replied, ducking her head and then rubbing it, even though she wore a helmet as the tank took a heavy bump, and sent the woman up out of her position, striking her head on the roof of the vehicle. She resumed the loading process quickly, locking and setting the breech's handwheel, before taking the spent shells and pushing them back and into a collection bin.

Ophelia peeked through a periscope to the outside world before relinquishing the position once more, dropping herself from the upper fighting compartment to the lower, and taking aim with the hull-mounted machine gun. "Luminary Maiden! Open fire! Enemy troop position in the ruins on our left, target pillbox on our right."

"Watch for anti-tank teams this time.." Velouria lazily said, as she turned the turret of the tank and depressed the main cannon. The report of the cannon firing was muffled behind the firing of the hull gun. The tank suddenly stopped and reversed, the turret spinning to the right, as the breech of the cannon was slammed shut with a new round in the chamber before the gun could even settle on a new target. Nina casually kicked the hot spent brass aside, pulling out a third round, ready to repeat the loading process as soon as the gun fired again.

Velouria leaned into her periscopic viewport, and pulled a handle to her right side, and there was a flash of flame that overtook the front of the tank, the light normalizing after a few moments as a luminous yellow-orange river of flame shot out from the tank's second barrel. Liquid fire engulfed the concrete and steel of the target pillbox, with a column of thick, heavy black smoke billowing away from the jet of burning napalm. "Slightly to the left, Soleil!"

"Slightly?" Soleil flashed a toothy grin, "Why not go all the way?"

"Luminary uppercut?" Ophelia asked, almost excitedly at Soleil's suggestion. "Let's do it!"

"This is gonna be cool!" Soleil said, pulling a lever, as the tank's engine whined. Treads spun and the tank lurched. Soleil let off the clutch and spun the steering wheel. The tank practically jumped at the maneuver, bringing the side of the pillbox into view of the main cannon, which fired in concert: with napalm sprayed into the pillbox's viewport, and the entrance blasted by a 90mm canister shell, were that a live target, it certainly wouldn't be a live one after that, and the front gun port had a solid view of the battlefield the whole while, spraying rounds into nearby buildings, shredding the targets that represented a troop that were operating Type 4 Anti-Tank Rocket Launchers.

"Check the theatrics! Target neutralized but there's no need to be flashy!" The commander barked into the radio. "That said… all enemy infantry positions and the pillbox eliminated in record time. Up next, fire no fire drills. Remember, only take out Hoshidan positions. Adding to that, an Anti-Aircraft response drill! Don't get taken out by Ghost Rider Squadron!" Ophelia and Soleil both laughed, as Velouria and Nina sighed, with Nina pulling a lever to unload the unspent canister shell, before reloading a standard AP shell.

"Well girls? Here we go!" Ophelia said with a laugh as Soleil kicked the tank back into motion.

High above the tank drills, the mock aerial battle was really beginning to take shape. Percy gritted his teeth as his plane pitched into the inverted, then rolled right violently. He kicked open the flaps, slowing the Ascender, and reducing the g-forces on his head. The target in front of him was certainly no novice, that was certain. He aileron-rolled the plane back to level and took a quick glance around. No other _Ghost Riders_, just the bronco in front of him trying to buck him off. The silver skin of the flashy Nohrian Army aircraft reflected the sun as it turned, its trapezoidal wings and distinct under-belly air scoop and small tail and elevators for a fighter of its size making out its silhouette; one that while only a trained expert would differentiate between it and a Warhawk at a distance, but unmistakable up close, as the Mustang was a show-bird in every sense of the word.

"Bang." Percy said, keying his radio, as the cannons on his Ascender opened up. Paint splotches dotted the silver plane, marking the simulated kill, a brilliant blue from the 20mm paint rounds and purple from his 12.7mm guns. It dropped low, stopping its fight and flying back to the airbase, his time in this practice fight was done. He stopped following it, and took a deep breath, before adjusting his scarf. "Alright, _Luck's Sidekick_… let's bring down a Juliet-Two."He said to himself, creeping the throttle up as he put the plane into a climb, and as he pulled the plane through a cloud, he spotted his prey.

One of the other Ascenders broke from the fight, following the same flight-path as the Mustang before. An ugly splattering of bright pink paint covered the canopy and a brilliant neon green marked up the left wing. "Sorry, Percy. Silas got me." Sophie radioed back: the trounced Ascender was hers, and there was no mistaking the direct hit from the J-2's 40mm cannon.

"I guess you're out. Abracadabra, are you still in this?" Percy asked, "Force him into a two-on-one." He commanded without waiting for a reply. "We use, let's see, _that_ maneuver."

"Against a Juliet-Two?" Nyx responded, almost flabbergasted. "You're gambling on the devil's luck there, Hero."

"It'll work, far better than trying to hammerhead him, and Silas knows how to handle an Ascender on his six." Percy said back, his voice reflecting sound confidence.

"Alright _Hero_, but if this doesn't work, it's on your call." Nyx sighed, before laughing. "There he is."

"Here we go." Percy said with a smirk as the Mustang J-2 crossed the field of vision. It was slightly heavier than the normal P-51, but was actually built off of the light frame, P-51J. It traded out some of the sturdiness of the normal version of the fighter for carrying a 40mm cannon, in a configuration comparable to another set of Nohrian warbirds. It also had a beastly liquid-cooled '_Super Tornado'_ engine, the same that powered the Ascender. The H-block engine was bulky enough to change the silhouette of the fighter significantly: the nose, everything forward of the Mustang's distinct bubble cockpit, was visibly bulkier, more square. Topping it off, in addition to the visible supercharger on the side of the plane, it had a completely different, spinner-less prop assembly, which carried the 40mm cannon through it. Unlike the normal version of the plane, the J-2 was meant to not only shoot things down, but utterly demolish them: it hunted bigger prey in the same fashion that Luna squadron's P-58 Chain Lightning fighters did.

He slightly tipped the plane's wing down, then back up, as the two ascenders both accelerated straight towards and above and below their turning foe at full throttle. The beastly experimental plane's engine howled, as it swooped down, aligning itself for a chase. The powerful machine could keep pace with the Ascender, and it soon caught up to Percy and Nyx. As soon as it did, however, both Sol Squadron planes rolled: flying almost sideways, as Silas's plane caught on to Nyx's 6 o'clock position. "Now!" Percy yelled and Nyx responded by pulling up, which brought her plane, with Silas's in tow, inward. Percy did the same, forcing a near head-on.

There was the sudden report of guns and cannons. Percy and Silas flew into a head-on, brought on by the maneuver, though with Percy's more outside angle won him the day: Fluorescent blue and purple paint littered the front and bottom of Silas's plane.

"Score one for Sol Squadron!" Percy exclaimed, in child-like joy.

"Negative. Score zero." The exercise commander's voice was sharp, "While you were pulling stunts and taking out Ghost Rider, they got one of their Fighter-bombers through and got the friendly tanks! Watch the field."

Percy let out a long drawn sigh.

"Return to base."

Ophelia shook her head as she looked on at the front of her crew's tank. A fine white dusting of flour covered the front and starboard side of the tank. They had succeeded at most of the drills, but not at keeping an eye on the sky. The flour dusting was a clear sign: they had failed. Were it an actual battle, had that bomb been real and not just a sack of flour, they'd be dead. The tank can repel a lot of firepower, but it was far from invulnerable. And the simulated thousand pound bomb was well within range to have taken the_ Luminary Maiden_ out.

"We lost." She sighed in defeat, before climbing back into the tank.

"Return to the base for drill debriefing." The commander said over the radio.

Soleil laughed, sweetly trying to lighten the mood, "Turn those frowns upside-down! When this is over, let's go get some tea."

"I think I'll pass," Ophelia shook her head. Velouria and Nina also gave similar sentiments.

_Location: Windmire, Nohr_  
_Date: 28th Of November; 1st Year of open war_  
_Time: 17:22 Local_

It was evening, as far as anyone could tell in the city of Windmire, the capital of Nohr. November brought the season's first snow, and thicker clouds to fit the near grim industrial atmosphere that blanketed the city, darkening the skies to an almost night-like ambience even in broad daylight. The sprawling industrial center of a city was built around a large, long abandoned coal mining pit, nestled in a desolate plateau. Ever since the day the city sprang up, it had been bustling with activity. It started with coal, then rail, and soon factories were built up around the ever growing pit. The city continued to grow, becoming the center of Nohr's might, both industrial, and political, even though the coal veins beneath the city were exhausted and oil became ever more needed. The Royal family of Nohr had moved to the city themselves and with it, brought the center of power to the growing economic center of the country, and established a far richer side of the city, with a prominent castle taking up its place in the center of the exhausted mining pit and the area around it, the upper class area known as Krakenburg.

Dirty gray snow littered the wet broken concrete ground, as men, women and children lined the streets. Wistful wanting eyes stared up at glowing displays advertising toys. Propaganda posters were plastered up on almost every corner. Signs calling for action, for unity among the Nohrian people, for recruitment into the Army and Navy, and into their respective Air Corps. A line of people against a cold brick building, illuminated by flashing lights from above. A theatre, that at a distant glance would be seen as ritzy, though at closer inspection was anything but, was advertising a foreign movie, "Flight of the Princess, featuring Olivia Willis Lowell", a poster there of showing the actress's face with a scene of a fanciful twin-tailed seaplane fleeing a fleet of warships that had a vague Hoshidan design. A young couple, a man with a red coat, and pants held up by suspenders curiously not wearing any earmuffs or coverings over his head and a woman with long blonde hair in a fluffy white and blue outfit walked into the theatre as police drove by the area slowly, panning a searchlight down mostly empty alleyways between high-rise housing buildings along the street where a dog growled and barked incessantly at a cat that teased it from atop a garbage can.

A trolley stopped, letting off passengers who had come from the factories where Nohr had once been constructing automobiles, and instead were producing tanks, warplanes, guns, ammo and engines for the growing war effort. Weary eyes that hardly looked up from the ground were shown on the peoples' faces as they went home for the evening. Two soldiers stood by a table, one with a clipboard, and the other taking things off of it, as a truck idled nearby. The dreary city was alive, but to someone unfamiliar with the sights of Nohrian urban life, it would appear dead.

In the distant horizon, the bright lights of Krakenburg illuminated the center of the city, while searchlights cast from the tops of towers manned by large anti-aircraft guns scanned the sky, ever on the lookout for potential enemy attack. The area around was cast in a dim orange under the buzzing streetlamps, and the famous Windmire ballpark was set as a dark structure in the deep gray, its doors shuttered and games cancelled due to the war.

Corrin let out a long sigh as he sat back in the plush seating of the staff car in which he rode, his saddened red eyes looking out the window of the car as it drove its way to his destination, a government building in the heart of Windmire, just outside of the vaunted Castle Krakenburg itself. In his lap, the day's newspaper, featuring a column by a wartime reporter as its headline. A battle in the Dia region had turned incredibly savage, and the Escort Carrier "_Astral Lilith_" had been sunk by Hoshidan torpedo squadrons only miles away from her home port. A surprising move by a tank platoon using a snorkel managed to catch Hoshidan ground forces off guard, retaking an important bridgehead and as such the battle ended in a strategic stalemate. Reading the news made the diplomat, who's life goal had been peace, feel his heart sink in his chest. The paper was filled with stories on the war, "Reports Untrue! Nohrian Battleship clash with Hoshido in the Bottomless Canyon never happened, says Navy Personnel.", "Hoshidan forces ravage Port Dia. Battle to control the strategic seaport rages.", "Resistance continues on Sevenfold", "Bombers hit Hoshidan Cities!", "Massive Battleship sighted! Is the Nohrian Navy up to the task of repelling Hoshido's steel monster? An Interview with Fleet Admiral Leo on the subject.", "Prospective Ally Nation declares Neutrality in the conflict!", "Flamethrowers! Should their use be banned? Generals mull options as protests in Cheve grow."

Corrin wistfully looked around, tossing the paper aside, not wanting to read much more, and resumed looking out the window of the car as it slowly made its way through crowded city streets. He shook his head and ran his hand through his white hair. A touch on his shoulder though, prompted him to turn back away from looking out the window. "Azura?" Corrin asked, as he looked back at the woman sitting next to him.

"Corrin, are you alright?" She asked, calmly taking his right hand into her own.

"I… am. It's just, when everything I've done has been for the sake of peace, being wrapped up in the heart of a war… it just doesn't feel… real." He said, looking back down to the newspaper. It had fallen open to an article about a trade partner of Nohr's officially stating its non-participation in the conflict. Details of the meeting, and his own trip to their lands, having only been days prior left mixed feelings in his heart. Theirs was a peaceful land, though clearly scarred by a war that had ripped through it years prior. He knew his goal was to muster up more allies for Nohr. There wasn't any misunderstanding in why that was important, what would matter was turning the tide and winning as quickly as they could. But part of him felt at peace with his failure: they'd not be dragged into a war where their people would march to slaughter like sheep. "I feel like I'm lost in a storm, Azura."

She smiled and nodded, leaning over to him. "It's alright, you just have to keep doing what your heart tells you is right."

"What is right?" Corrin asked himself as he looked down. "I'm the one who… brought that bomb to Hoshido. Who killed the Empress… my Mother. I'm as guilty as any other for this war that grows worse by the day."

"But Hoshido's fleet was already besieging Sevenfold when you did… Sevenfold is weeks away from Shirasagi." Azura pointed out, "They were already starting the war when you delivered that bomb."

"I know. I know. The fact that Mikoto pointed out who I was, and showed me that awful warship… it was meant to intimidate me. To make me stay in Hoshido, perhaps as their prisoner. To give a second pause to Nohr…" Corrin shook his head, "But to have it come to this gruesome war? I don't believe any of it is right."

"No one likes war, Corrin." Azura said, "But sometimes, it's just unavoidable. It's not your fault that the war is happening, it's the powers that be."

"I still feel horrible." He bit his lip, as he looked into her eyes, "I know I wanted to take you away from that horrible place, knowing what they were doing with you," he shook his head, "but I don't want this war. I don't want their people to suffer. I don't want ours to suffer. I fear for the days ahead… and..." he stopped, shaking before he felt Azura squeeze his arm.

"It's alright, Corrin. You're human, just like the rest of us, of them. You can cry, you don't have to feel good about the things that are happening." Azura said, softly, before humming a familiar tune.

Corrin leaned his own head over, and let it rest on Azura's shoulder as she slipped her arm around him. "Thank you, Azura…" He said softly, as tears started rolling from his eyes.

_Location: Yasego, Hoshido_  
_Date: 29th Of November; First Year of Open War._  
_Time: 10:20 Local_

"Oh how I hate chores! How I'd rather get more snores!" Mitama said, as she swept the front of the shrine, her eyes catching sight of two somber looking men in dark uniforms walking up to her. "Who comes to my door?"

She paused her words and her sweeping for a moment as the two men continued up to the stairs to the entrance of the shrine. She looked at them intently, the stars fading from her eyes as she tried to figure out why two military men would approach her old shrine. A shaking feeling crept up her arm as thoughts started creeping into her head.

"Hello, Mitama?" One of the men asked, both were holding parade rest, though it was then that she noticed the folded flag and glittery medal held tightly in the crook of one of the men's arms. She felt a shake run through her.

"Yes…" She nodded.

"Miss… we're here to…" The man shook his head, handing her the flag and medal. "Inform you… as the person listed on Hisame Yuugo's will, that he has… given his life in service of Hoshido. The Destroyer, Haruusagi was sunk a week prior, and… we have confirmed… no survivors." The man explained trying to not lose his bearing, his lips shaking as he looked her in the eye.

Mitama felt her heart stop. "N...no… it can't be!" She cried, falling to her knees. "He can't be dead!" She screamed as tears rolled down her face. Her right hand was clenched so hard as to draw blood from her palm. "Hisame... why... why you?"

"We're sorry… Miss." The officer said, turning back around, and almost coldly walking away from her as she wept.

* * *

**Weapon Profile:  
_Dragonfall-class Battleship (Brynhildr, Seigfried, Freyja, Hrist)  
_**Designation: Battleship  
Weight: 57,600 Tons  
Length: 887 feet, 6 Inches  
Beam: 108 feet, 3 Inches  
Draft: 36 feet, 1 Inch  
Height: 172 feet, 11 Inches

Armament:  
Main Battery: 3 Turrets, 3 guns each. Caliber: 16 Inches  
Maximum Range: 24 Nautical Miles  
Fire Control System: Mark 11 Radar Rangekeeper. Accurate to 22 Nautical Miles. Three Rangefinder Optic Sets.  
Dual Purpose Secondary Battery: 10 Turrets, 2 guns each. Caliber: 5 Inches  
Anti-Aircraft Artillery:  
19 turrets, 4 guns each. Caliber 40mm.  
52 single and double barrel autocannons. Caliber 20mm.

Armor:  
Main Belt: 12.1 Inches  
Main Turrets: 7.6 to 17 Inches  
Conning Tower: 7.2 to 17.1 Inches  
Main Armor Deck: 6 to 7.3 Inches

Power:  
8 boilers, 8 turbines. 212,000 Shaft Horsepower  
Maximum Speed (Listed): 33 Knots  
Maximum Speed (Actual): 35.2 Knots at light load  
Range: 20,000 Nautical Miles at 15 Knots

Crew: 151 officers, 2637 enlisted  
Airgroup: 3 Floatplane Observers

* * *

**Author's Note: **Easter may be over, but here be eggs. Also, yes, that's Iowa. Also yes, (more) completely fictional gear showing up- the P-51J-2 (redesigned P-51 with the P&W XH-2600 Super Tornado, aka the "Hyper Engine" and a 40mm Bofors mounted in the nose like the Airacobra's 37mm) and that 90mm Flame Sherman (which is more hodge podging tanks that were things). Also, I hate writing Mitama. Haiku can burn in hell. Thanks for the reviews guys! I was not expecting that! Though I wouldn't exactly call this a "Modern" AU, since you know, 1940 and WWII was like... 80 years ago. In FE terms, that's as far as it was between Marth and Anri! But, no seriously, thanks for the reviews!

**Author's Note 2: **Absolute disbelief that this made it past my editing process this time, missing clauses, several wrong words. It was just a sheer mess, hence the reupload. Damn, I really need to get MS Word 2019+ back. Google Docs is just no stand-in for it. Thanks for those Day 1 Reviews too!


	8. Chapter 6: Blood Red Sunrise

**Chapter 6: Blood Red Sunrise**

* * *

December. Six months after the brutal attack at Sevenfold, the islands would soon again become a battleground. The seas would be stained with blood and oil, as people from both sides of the war would fight and die on those waves. It was a battle that would mark the end of Hoshidan Ambition, and a turning of the bloody tide: the second battle of Sevenfold Sanctuary, a battle remembered as Nohr's counterattack. Admiral Leo, through intentional leaking of information, and careful silence in others played misinformation right into the ears and eyes of Hoshidan spies. At the same time, spurned by the destruction of several Hoshidan cities, his rival, Yukimura was pressured into engaging Nohr in a more direct manner.

With a fleet laid waste by the initial action of the war, raised to fight once more, Leo advanced under the cover of a powerful storm, and entrapped the islands in a pincer formation. His flagship, the _Brynhildr_ escorting three fleet carriers: The _Queen Arete_, the _Lady Edelgard_, and the _Rigain Celica_. Aided by a handful of other ships, it would be the fleet that aimed at the heart of the Hoshidan Navy. From the south, a fourth fleet carrier, the _Lady Julia_, and the battleships _Siegfried_ and _Bolverk _and a fleet mostly comprised of tenders and troop transports made a daring approach to the contested islands.

Moving to engage the Nohrian fleet was the Hoshidan Southern Combined Fleet, and leading its charge were the mighty Hikariryu-class Battleships: _Raijinto_ and _Fujinkyu_. At their side were 4 fleet carriers, and dozens of other ships. Thousands of men on both sides would be caught up in the ensuing storm. What transpired was the greatest fleet battle of the entire war, and a crushing blow that Hoshido would feel, and Nohr revel in, for the war's remainder.

"_Displaying their might, ordering carriers, Admirals at war. To win the fight, tactics are crucial. Naval war!" _

_Location: Nohrian Battleship Brynhildr; 312 Nautical Miles from Northern Sevenfold Sanctuary Island_  
_Date: 23rd Of December; First Year of Open War._  
_Time: 07:08 Local_

The battleship was cladden in mist as it sailed through relatively calm seas. The morning sky was still dark, with a tinge of blood red on the horizon. Behind the ship, dark clouds obscured the sky. A fitting backdrop figured Admiral Leo as he stood on the bridge of the _Brynhildr_. He looked out the armored glass to starboard side, and sighted the _Queen Arete _as she sailed silently, like a ghost out of the grey. A group of scout planes were being launched from her decks, ready to fly alongside the flying boats that had recently been refueled and sent back into the skies. He lowered his gaze as he heard footsteps from behind and turned his head. "Medical Officer Forrest? What brings you to the bridge at this hour?"

"Nothing, sir." The man, whose face might lead one to mistake him for a woman, said, as he looked out the window. "Thought I'd take a look out to the sea."

"You should go back to the mess and eat." Admiral Leo turned back to face the ship's front. "It's going to be a long day, and if anyone needs their energy today, it's our medical staff like you."

"…the morning sun is blood red." Forrest said, running a finger through his curly blonde hair.

"Red sun in the morning, sailor take warning. Red sun at night, sailor's delight. …last evening was red as well, was it not?"

"You're right, sir." Forrest said, looking at the admiral. Leo was gazing off into the sunrise, almost wistful in expression.

"…Forrest, I trust you're aware of what we sail into." Leo said, "This is not just a hurricane. No storm would ever be comparable to what we're about to face. …men and women are going to die today. Good ones… good brave men and women… with families, with loved ones. When we set sail, people said goodbye to their family, for the last time in their life." He paused, picking his eyes up from his gaze across the warship's bow, looking on as the sun rose, paying little attention to the sailors now assembling on the deck beside the Baker turret. "I need you to save as many lives as you can. We're going to get hurt out there, we're going to hurt. …and like I said, people will die. But when this battle's run its bloody course, I want it made certain, that we aren't monsters." Leo shook his head, "I can scarcely claim such, knowing that I've seen firsthand to the deaths of hundreds, I know that. Victory comes first, humanity second, that's the way war is. But Gods above, when it's said and done, I'd rather us drag the drowning Hoshidan from the waves and imprison him until war's end than shoot him dead. Operation Fox Mine isn't the same as our flight to convene our fleet. We're meeting the enemy head on and fighting honorably," Leo continued, his head tilting upwards.

"You sound like Corrin right now sir," Forrest said, somberly.

"Perhaps big brother is rubbing off on me," Leo said, with a slight smile creeping up on his face, only for his lips to fall back down. "However, it doesn't matter, I'm sending sailors and aviators to their deaths today." He raised his hand to his face and rubbed his eyes. "Now go, get the Medical Division ready for today's grim tasks."

"Understood, sir." Forrest said, nodding and walking out of the ship's bridge.

_Location: Nohrian Carrier Queen Arete; 310 Nautical Miles from Northern Sevenfold Sanctuary Island_  
_Date: 23rd Of December; First Year of Open War._  
_Time: 07:15 Local_

It was eerily silent in the mess hall, as pilots nervously ate their breakfasts. Tension was running high enough, since everyone in the vessel knew full well that a battle was on the horizon, and it was not some small skirmish. Several pilots bore grim looks on their faces, as they looked at their breakfast. It was then, that Captain Camilla spoke up. "Please eat. This is going to be a long day." Silence broken, as most of the officers in the mess suddenly looked up and focused on her. "I know what all of you are thinking, and being honest, I have to agree. None of us think we can go toe to toe with Hoshido. Not on the sea, not in the sky. Not in an open and fair fight. I was there when they hit Sevenfold. I saw what their air wing can do. I know damn well why we weren't wiped out there and then was because of the Army's surprising intervention. And we don't have those miracle planes this day- we're outnumbered and outgunned. But we're not dead in the water yet." She shook her head. "They're not invincible, they're not unstoppable, and by Gods, we can win yet. It will just take a bit of courage out of every single one of you. I've seen it, hell we're flying with one of the heroes of Sevenfold. It wasn't just the Army who carried that day: Commander Selena hopped in a Wildcat and fought back in her pajamas. And she did so alone, and she's still here ready to continue that fight." She stopped and looked at Selena who blushed, crossed her arms and looked to the left, "One of our Naval Infantry brought down a bomber with an infantry-fielded light machine gun. I know every one of us can fly with them."

A few of the men looked up, and then one shouted in the back, "We're gonna give 'em a good shellacking!"

Another woman shouted, "We're Nohr, dammit. They might be the rising sun, but we're the night. Every time the sun rises, it also sets. It's time to remind Hoshido of that!"

A few moments later, the silence was gone. There was still an air of fear and tension, but it was largely being overcame by one that was filled with near reckless courage.

"Geez, Camilla, you don't need to put everyone's eyes on me. Gawds." Selena huffed, before taking a bite of toast.

"What can I say? You make for one hell of a morale boost." Camilla said, "And when they see the side of your _Secret Dreamer_, they'll really get it."

Selena flushed red at the comment and swallowed the half-chewed piece of bread looking almost bug-eyed, reaching up to slap Camilla across the cheek. "Do you really need to bring that up?"

"Of course, I do, dear." Camilla laughed in response.

Selena choked for a moment before quickly grabbing a cup of orange juice and quickly swallowing it with a cough. "Dammit, Camilla." She shook her head but then her embarrassed look was suddenly turned into an almost insidious smirk.

"Oh, what's that look for, Selena?" Camilla asked, pursing her lips and placing her forefinger on them.

"You know exactly what," Selena replied, "You said you owe me for that little stunt half-a-year-ago."

"Oh, I did say that." Camilla paused, curiously looking over at Selena.

"You wanted _me_ half-nude? How about you do even more!" Selena chided, "You lost, so you show it off this time. _All of it_."

Camilla smiled and disarmingly replied, "Okay." She didn't even appear flustered, which from the suddenly fading expression on Selena's face, had taken the wind right out of her sails.

"Okay? That's it?" Selena asked, almost certainly emitting her disappointment at the ease at which this went.

"Of course, I said I owe you," Camilla replied, "and if you want me showing off as a pinup, well I'll oblige." She shook her head, "That is, of course, meaning we _win_ today. Bet's off if you die."

"Oh, you don't worry about me, I'm not going to die out there," Selena crossed her arms, "So you better not either."

Camilla smiled, picking up a piece of sausage with her fork. "Oh, that sounds like a challenge." She said before taking a bite of the sausage.

"Consider it." Selena smirked, "So what's the ante?" She asked taking another bite of her eggs and toast.

Camilla swallowed, "I'll think about that." She wiped the corner of her mouth before getting up from the table, as her eyes shifted to her right. A siren-light had begun to spin, "Looks like it's go time, Revenant Knights."

A moment later a ringing of bells, and the General Quarters call echoed through the ship. "Report of Enemy fleet has been received. All Combat Pilots, report to the ready rooms and prepare for combat. Flight engineers, ready the aircraft."

_Location: Hoshidan Carrier Kinnaginata, 68 Nautical Miles from Northern Sevenfold Sanctuary Island_  
_Date: 23rd Of December; First Year of Open War._  
_Time: 06:35 Local_

Hinoka wore a straight face as she stepped in front of the Hoshidan pilots in the dim ready room of the carrier. She snapped her feet to attention and gave them all a salute. "Good morning." She said sharply, before dropping the salute. "I'm aware you may have known my face but am also aware none of you actually know me. I am, indeed, Princess Hinoka. And from now on, you, the fighter pilots of the Toku-Goten Shi are now part of my squadron, the Golden Kites. I know this puts far more pressure on you, as you are to be expected to be elite. However, I know that all of you, veterans of our offenses at Sevenfold and the skies over Día have the skills to fly with me." Hinoka said sharply, scanning the room. The silent room and studiously watching eyes were all the response she got: the discipline of the Hoshidan pilots was exactly what she was expecting, although she did find it slightly unsettling.

"I know it's unusual to fly into combat as your first sortie with a new commander," Hinoka continued, "but today, we're taking on what remains of Nohr's fleet." She opened her arms and leaned forward. "It might seem like any other mission, but this one is special. Our attack on Sevenfold broke their fleet. If we win today, we put an end to their menace." Hinoka's chest rose, "They are the ones who stole our Prince Kamui from us. They are the ones who manipulated him into killing our beloved Empress. They are the ones who have given our foes weapons that have taken the lives of many. …They're the ones who sent bombers into our cities on the mainland and took so many," her face puffed up almost shedding tears, "so many lives. I remember my last trip to one of the bombed-out areas, I met a girl there: her family was slaughtered. And who was it that killed them? Nohr!" She slammed her fist on the bulkhead to punctuate the statement. The squadron's pilots shuddered at Hinoka's sudden violence. "This is why… this is why we must win! For our people, like Mozume. No more will we see a young girl have to say goodbye to her family due to the ambitions of King Garon." The red-haired woman breathed heavily as she stopped her speech for a moment to catch her breath.

She threw a glance to the man with fuzzy brown hair standing to her right, then another to the taller man with red hair to her left. Both nodded. "We suspect an attack coming from the west. We don't know how Nohr did it, but it seems they've rebuilt their fleet, and now plan to strike back at the Sevenfold Sanctuary blockade fleet to reinforce Port Día. …one of our insiders let us know that there was a gathering at the Bottomless Canyon region, and we know we've lost a destroyer in that area, and while Nohr claims publicly that there wasn't an engagement, a Harekaze-class destroyer wouldn't be sunk by a mere storm." She continued, with a pause, "But it doesn't matter now how Nohr managed to regain a foothold. What matters is that we know they steam towards us. Yukimura expects this strike to come from the west: the fleet from the North could only be miniscule, though it could contain the elusive flagship of their Prince Leo, one of the last Battleships that Nohr has. Nohr wouldn't be so reckless as to bring a large fleet through the typhoon that bears down on the central Vallan Ocean now, so with knowledge of the attack, we suspect that their carrier task force was reassembled in the Nestra region, perhaps with the meeting in the canyon to throw us off."

The fuzzy haired man spoke up, "I am Azama, and will be taking over as executive officer, as I am Princess Hinoka's appointed retainer. I will not bore you with the fleeting details, just remember that everyone dies. There's no reason to ever hold back in a fight. Search planes will begin taking off from our carriers at 07:10," he paused, looking around the room. "You, the Golden Kite Order, are our primary fighter group. Everyone will sortie at 08:00. Our objective will be ensuring the success of our Torpedo Squadrons."

_Location: Nohrian Carrier Queen Arete; 289 Nautical Miles from Northern Sevenfold Sanctuary Island_  
_Date: 23rd Of December; First Year of Open War._  
_Time: 08:05 Local_

The wind howled past the carrier as she churned through the open ocean. The sun had now risen and cast a golden light that reflected hard on the blue of the water. The carrier's aircrew were moving aircraft up, ready for take-off as other planes were climbing up and away in the distance. One-by-one, the fighters were launching in sequence, and once the escorting groups were airborne, the bombers would follow. A guard squadron to each carrier was being held, ready to go at first sight of enemy air attack. Off her port side, the _Brynhildr_ was steadily keeping pace with the carriers, her massive guns casting an impressive visage on the fleet. Gunner crews and Naval Infantry were lining the Anti-Aircraft turrets, as nervous eyes watched the skies, so far though, it was nothing but friendlies overhead.

"Calm down, seaman," Laslow said, as he hopped over a railing and into the metal container of a line of 20mm guns as one sailor was practically shaking at his post. "We're not in the fight yet." He gave the boy a pat on his back, "It's just our fighters, like Selena there," he said, pausing and pointing at the red striped, bent-wing fighter with the lewd portrait on the side bouncing as it rolled down the flight deck, passing him and the sailor as it leapt into the sky, the rumble of the engine echoing off the waves as it took flight. "Us in the Naval Infantry will have your back once the fighting gets going." The man nodded, as Laslow took the nerve-rattled sailor's hand off the gun. "Sit back. If any of the others come after you for it, I'll handle it." He said, flashing his collar, showing his status as an officer.

"Thank you, sir." The man said, huffing as Laslow took his position on the gun.

"What's your name?" Laslow asked, looking to his left, toward the bow of the ship. Torpedo planes had begun taking off: big bulky birds with bulbous bottoms and a ball turret like that of a Flying Fortress heavy bomber half-way down the plane's fuselage. The _Queen Arete_ didn't have many of these new-type torpedo bombers, and as Laslow had come to realize, Nohr didn't in general. Older planes would take off after them. Then would come the divers, which were just as old as the older torpedo planes. Then would come the real tension, with the attack squadrons away, that was the time to watch for enemy attack.

"Thomas, sir," he responded, sitting down on a box. "Thomas from Freesia."

"Freesia?" Laslow looked to his left, "So you're from the Ice Tribe?" Thomas nodded in response. "Well, I'm Laslow," He paused for a moment, before slightly changing the subject. "Do you have any siblings?"

"A sister, sir." Thomas responded. "She's getting married next month."

"Well that's good. I'd ask if you're gonna go see her after this, but I know that's a silly question. But in a couple months' time, you should," Laslow said. "I have a sister too. Older. I wound up missing her wedding as well, she married her first flame and I was occupied and couldn't make it. But what can you do? Just don't ever forget that you're family: send her a letter and congratulate her."

"I will." Thomas looked away.

Laslow sighed, "You said that you're from Freesia?" He stopped momentarily as the roar of loud props rolled past, another take-off. He glanced back, most of the planes were no longer in queue, and a few of the deck seamen were walking across the flight deck. "If we get a chance, after we win this battle, why don't we meet up there one day, maybe meet a few cuties at a bar?"

No reply.

"Look, I know you're worried about this fight. We all are." Laslow said, "It's hard, damn hard. You can't just be a fighter. You must be invincible. That pressure? I know it too well. But, listen, we're gonna win today. And we'll keep winning. Just… keep it cool, and when it's time to fight, like really fight, we'll be here, ready to fight with you."

"Laslow!" a familiar energetic voice called out as a man carrying a box of ammunition was practically running to the platform.

"Odin?" Laslow asked, as he heard the other man call his name, "What in the seven hells are you doing carrying ammo like that? You're an officer!" He shook his head, "Thomas, do Lieutenant Odin a favor and get that off him."

"Right away, sir!" Thomas said, hopping to his feet.

Odin shook his head, and stopped the seaman, "It's fine." He said, setting the crate down in the anti-aircraft battery platform. "I offered to give the division a hand while looking for you. This must be destiny."

Laslow shook his head, backing away from the gun. "Still though, lugging ammo around isn't a job for us. We're officers here, Odin."

"You were manning a gun."

"Fair, but I was doing so to get some of the pressure off Thomas here, which is what we should be doing. And we're gonna be manning the guns when the Hoshidans come anyway, and when we get back onto our island."

Odin laughed, "So then you sense it too! The rising tide of destiny that threatens to wash us all away!"

Laslow chuckled, "One of your stories, there, Odin? We all know we're facing Hoshido today. We're clear of the storm, and within striking distance of the Sevenfold Sanctuary."

"But today won't just be a battle! It will be a battle spoke of in legends to come. Fate will be decided today. Today is the foretold clash of legends!" Odin exclaimed, striking a quick pose, "The forces of dark and light clash in a titanic battle as they cross blades to decide the fate of the world!"

"You really think so?" Thomas asked, his eyes slightly perking up.

"Yes!" Odin said excitedly.

Laslow shook his head, "Remember to hydrate. Today's gonna be long."

_Location: Northern Sevenfold Sanctuary Island_  
_Date: 23rd Of December; First Year of Open War._  
_Time: 09:01 Local_

An Orange-haired man looked at a map. It was dotted with red "X"s, and was scrawled with a myriad of notes. "I'm telling you; it doesn't add up." He said, "Nohr striking here today would be well within their means. There's no other reason we would've seen that many of the remnant fleet depart Esperanza."

"Sailing through a typhoon though?" A well-endowed woman with long brown hair that covered one of her eyes said looking around the darkened room. "With landing craft? And our blockade? Even if they do manage a breakthrough, I doubt they can make a significant strike against the islands. It took our forces weeks to establish a beachhead and that was with a far heavier strike that sent them running."

"Kagero, don't underestimate them." The orange haired man said, "We make that mistake and we'll have a lot of blood on our hands. And unless you doubt your own scouting information, we know their carriers and that battleship are underway."

"Kaden, I don't doubt it for a second. That Admiral set a gangster on me and Saizo. He was up to something and wanted us to hear things and not hear others- I'm not a rookie spy, I know he was up to something, but we have to consider what we do know. Nohr has incredible industrial capacity, we can't match that." Kagero responded, "And that is being choked by the battle at Port Día. Not here. To hit us here, hit us now, it would be foolhardy."

"I know what you're thinking, but our Cheve insiders aren't reporting the tank divisions being moved to reinforce the fighters at Día," Kaden said, "They're also the people of the dark. The Typhoon won't hinder their surface engagement capability."

"They won't throw their aircraft carriers and their last great battleship at the Hikariryus. I'm sure they took that information that Kamui had." Kagero replied. "This is a feint: I don't doubt the damn man's ability, but he won't just sacrifice what little he has of his fleet to fight a storm and our forces."

"I think it's the trap itself." Kaden shook his head. "If they come from the North, and strike at Sevenfold, when we're expecting their fleet to be in the west to sever the line to Día, we're in trouble."

"You could be right, but…" Kagero started to say.

"I suppose that's for our Grand Admiral, Yukimura, to decide." A voice called out from behind, prompting both Kaden and Kagero to turn around. A man with a stern expression on his washed-out looking face was standing there, in a very dutiful looking uniform, one drab gray and having a single line of golden buttons running down its middle. His choker was adorned in wings of red, each with a single golden star and corona, the Hoshidan crest. There was a golden rope and tassel set on his right side, and while his left bore no medals, his shoulder boards were adorned with five chrysanthemum flowers, and affixed to his belt was a katana. He had a rounded visor cap which sat on his long white-brown hair.

"Prince Takumi…" Kagero and Kaden both knelt respectfully.

"Yukimura concurs with Kagero and her information," Takumi said, holding out a folder in his white-gloved right hand. "Nohr wouldn't be reckless. Not with their last battleships, which explains their lie about the Haruusagi. They're cunning backstabbers, like that corrupted traitor Prince of ours. Princess Hinoka has been called in with her Golden Kite Order to lead the air groups: there will be a battle today, but it will be far from our shores." Kagero nodded, as Takumi motioned for the other two to rise. "We continue our operation on Sevenfold. We're reclaiming the sacred temple of the First Dragons. Kagero, your intelligence services are needed. There is an increasing pocket of resistance from the Nohrian scum here. We need to weed them out."

"Of course, your majesty." Kagero replied, with a salute.

"Kaden, I need you to continue with logistical support. Your work at Kumabuchi after the Nohrian bombers hit it was commendable." Takumi said, "Regardless of the strength of our fleet, we cannot maintain a presence without that. I know it won't be an easy job, but when we stop the scum from reinforcing their besieged units at Día we may finally be able to take control of the city. And from there, it will get a lot easier on restoring Sevenfold to Hoshidan control."

Kaden flashed a quick smile. "I will, my Prince."

"Prince Takumi, if you don't mind me asking, what brings you to Sevenfold itself? Weren't you to command the regiment aboard the _Fujinkyu_?" Kagero asked.

"I am no Naval Officer, Kagero. But yes, I was, however that was only for morale support. Now that there's been movement by Nohr, I regretfully had to say goodbye to the ship, at Yukimura's recommendation," Takumi responded, pulling out a silken cloth from his breast pocket. "That unfortunately meant saying goodbye to my dear Oboro as well, but as soon as Nohr's fleet is destroyed, I shall return." He flashed a smile before snapping to attention. The others quickly followed suit, before issuing salutes. As his salute fell, he quickly about-faced and walked swiftly and purposefully from the bunker, the light visible through the heavy vegetation flooding the otherwise mostly artificially lit room with real sunlight for a moment before the door clanked shut once more.

"You wanted to ask him about Orochi, didn't you?" Kaden asked.

"Indeed, but it would be inappropriate." Kagero shook her head. "But with Princess Hinoka being brought here, we have three of the royals now on the frontlines."

"Times have changed since our early successes. Delays at Día have affected morale, and their presence is reassuring." Kaden noted.

Kagero suddenly put her two right fingers up and raised her right hand and then without hesitation tackled Kaden to the ground. A sudden crash, the sound of shattering glass as something was thrown into the bunker through a mostly darkened viewport on the upper left side of the building. A flickering of flame revealed the make-shift firebomb, and judging by where it landed, it could've been more dangerous. Picking Kaden up, she bolted for the door, grabbing a rifle and ducking around the side of the bunker, and onto a more elevated platform. She scanned the view into the jungle, her eyes looking for movement amongst the trees as smoke billowed out of the viewport. Nothing, at least not as far as she could see: the attackers had escaped.

There was a sudden crack of gunfire, and Kagero felt a stinging sensation in her leg. She began to collapse and fell from the side of the concrete building. Panting heavily, she then involuntarily cried out, even as two other Hoshidan soldiers rushed to her side as the shot rang out. She coughed as the two men grabbed her thigh and began wrapping it in bandages.

"Stay with us!" Kaden yelled as he ran to her side, kneeling next to her, nodding at the two others as a siren rang out through the Hoshidan camp. A handful of men with bayoneted rifles ran past the bunker and into the jungle.

Kagero groaned in agony as she struggled to remain awake, clutching at her wounded leg. Two men quickly approached with a stretcher and lifted her up onto it. "It's like being… back in Mokusho." She said to the medics as she watched Kaden pick up her rifle and join the other guardsmen as they set out into the jungle to try to hunt down the attackers, knowing they couldn't possibly have gotten far. What immediately was worrying her was the fact that Prince Takumi was here, and it was likely he was the target of the Molotov cocktail and sniper's bullet. A matter of miracle timing had spared him death by fire. There was the sudden and violent chorus of firearms echoing through the trees. A firefight had begun, and amidst her agony, Kagero could only imagine what was going on.

_Location: Approximately 274 Nautical miles away from the Sevenfold Sanctuary_  
_Date: 23rd Of December; First Year of Open War._  
_Time: 09:11 Local_

Clouds of black flak bursts were floating high in the sky as the Nohrian destroyer frantically turned to avoid a torpedo run from the green-colored Hoshidan bombers. It had proved surprisingly evasive, avoiding attack from two direct runs. But Hinoka felt something in her chest practically screaming that something was wrong. A cloud of thick black smoke was now drifting over the waves, beginning to obscure the small group of vessels which were under a heavy and brutal attack from the Hoshidan strike formation.

But something wasn't right. There were indeed ships that were almost certainly troop transports, a heavy cargo vessel, three destroyers and a submarine, but what the Hoshidans had found was far from a major fleet asset, and Hinoka knew it. Orders, were of course, orders, and the strike squadrons were completing their runs, having already sunk the cargo ship, but there was no sight of the enemy's carriers. No sight of their air power. Yukimura said that Nohr may bring their battleship in from the north of the islands, through the typhoon, but no madman, not even the son of King Garon, would risk an entire fleet. As the enemy's smokescreen obscured the Nohrian group, and a B5N was struck by a stray shell from the Nohrian 40mm guns, bursting into flames and slamming hard into the waves, Hinoka had to make a call.

"Golden Kites turn north from here. This is a diversion; their fleet is farther north than we were expecting." Hinoka ordered, turning her plane northward, the sun reflecting off the white paint of its wings into her eyes momentarily, making her stutter in issuing her orders. "Bombing squadrons who have completed runs, return to the carrier, any squadrons with runs still left to make, finish the job. Any strike squadrons who have yet to send runs against this group form up and stay in formation."

At her command, a little more than 100 aircraft rose and turned, leaving the small Nohrian fleet to burn. Seven other planes turned in, dropping torpedoes, which the destroyer expertly weaved in and out of. Many others broke off, turning eastward.

"You sure this is wise, Hinoka?" Subaki radioed.

"Of course, Subaki," Hinoka replied, "That was not the main Nohrian fleet, and calling off our current attack keeps our planes airborne, conserves fuel, and doesn't expend weapons when we could need them. We know the real Nohrian fleet is out there, and it's our job to find them and strike." She momentarily lifted her hands from the control stick and punched an open palm. Her plane wavered in a mild Dutch roll for a moment before she put her hands back on the stick and restored the plane's normal control. "We have the fuel for another hunt, and judging by that fleet's movement, the main Nohrian fleet is to the north of here."

_Location: Approximately 118 Nautical miles away from the Sevenfold Sanctuary_  
_Date: 23rd Of December; First Year of Open War._  
_Time: 10:45 Local_

"Hoshidan flattops!" An excited sounding man sounded over the radio. "Sighting of Hoshidan Flattops. Bearing 343 relative. Four carriers. A battleship. Three heavy cruisers. …Zekes. Dammit. They've got a bearing on our approach. Zekes in-bound, from 11 o'clock low. Looks to be about 10 to 11 miles."

"Revenant Knights, it's go time." Camilla replied, "Our objective are those Zekes. If the strike planes get through, we can land a knockout blow." She cranked the throttle, turning the plane slightly to meet their Hoshidan opponents. The sky ahead began flashing with puffs of flak as the anti-aircraft guns on the Hoshidan ships began roaring to life. "You ready, Selena? Beruka?"

"You know it." Selena replied as her plane began picking up speed.

There was the typical silent acknowledgement from the AXO, who matched Camilla and Selena's movements in the sky. The rest of the squadron followed suit. "Look alive, and start knocking them down, our Corsairs should be a ready match for the Zero." Camilla said, keeping the flight path of her plane consistent. "The _Queen Arete_ covers the _Lady Edelgard_'s strike planes. Make sure they get through!"

"Roger!" Selena responded. The enemy was in sight, and the distance was closing fast. Selena felt her heart racing as she focused her eyes, and the mirrored gunsight of her fighter. The mix of tension, fear, anxiety and excitement and above all, determination, was what she felt, even as the plane rattled in turbulent skies. She focused her vision on a Zero, it was one of a group of three that was rising: up and away from the group of foes. It was colored in purple, gold and black, the same as the foe that had shot her when she had taken to the sky six months prior: whether it was that pilot, or merely another from the same squadron and ship, it didn't matter, he would feel her vengeance first. Her breath was pitched, and the enemy was in sight. Six other planes were rolling in with her target as it seemed to only inch closer.

"A dark fall…fire." Camilla said, her plane breaking formation, the first to do so.

Selena's rolled into the dive. She held her breath, the target turned. The howling of the Corsair's dive was prominent, but so was the thundering of the guns. Six machineguns roared to life, and tracers flew out, white-orange lines trailing invisible death. The Hoshidan aircraft seemed to halt in midair for a second, chunks of metal torn from their mounts. Her burst was on target. The dark colored zero rolled over, its nose pointed oceanward, as flame spewed from both sides of the fuselage, the fuel tanks in the plane's wings blazing. The pilot threw open the canopy to try to bailout, but the wing exploded, leaving his decapitated body to tumble below, amidst the wreckage. "I'm the best!" Selena shouted as she pulled her plane back up and into a zoom climb away from the Hoshidan fighters.

"How wonderful..!" Camilla responded to Selena calling out her victory, as the first plane fell from the sky. "Remember, don't try to out-turn the Hoshidans. If your speed drops below 230 mph, disengage and regain speed and altitude."

"Let the fools drain their energy and die!" Selena added on.

"The Hoshidan flies are attacking Geirskogul squadron! Protect our Torpedo planes!" A man's voice called out on the radio. "We just lost a TBF. The Avengers and Devastators can't handle fighters!"

"Camilla?" Beruka's sharp voice asked, as her teal-stripped plane rolled back up, a Hoshidan aircraft burning after a burst from her had taken out its engine.

"Of course, Beruka, Selena. Dive in. Let's kill them." Camilla said, turning westward from their current position. Ahead a torpedo plane was ablaze, and it slammed down into the waves, rolling sideways from the impact as a group of Hoshidan fighters were harassing them with passes from the rear. The ships were fighting back as well, walls of flak bursts coming from the 25mm guns aboard the carriers. Smoke was filling the sky as bouts of luminescent fire from tracers and burning planes flashed in the sunlight.

The trio moved as one, rising, then diving in unison. Each picking a foe from the group of harriers, and opening fire. Splashes shot up on the waves as bullets plunged into the sea. One plane burst into flames immediately, exploding in a flash of flame that shot out of the water, black smoke and soot rising out of the splash column. Another lost engine power and glided, somewhat gracefully into the ocean, firing one more burst, bringing down a Nohrian torpedo plane. The third, rolled up and out of the way.

"Skilled foe," Camilla said, as her prey turned, avoiding the fatal bursts that had killed others in the group. She didn't follow, instead opting to pull the nose up and into a climb, disengaging. She'd reengage on her own terms.

"That sounds like an excuse for you missing there, Camilla!" Selena chided with a laugh. "I've gotten two. How about you? Zero Zeroes?"

"You didn't finish that last one, and we lost another TBF, Selena."

The redheaded Hoshidan pilot with a wing-shaped ear clip on her headphones breathed heavily. This wasn't what she was expecting out of Nohr. Training had pounded into her that Nohrian aircraft were not maneuverable. That if they try to fight, they can be outturned and by that, out fought. This fight, it wasn't anything like her training, and she knew she had much more to learn, and she had to learn it now, or she would die. "Caeldori, focus on the Torpedo planes." A radio message from the _Kinnaginata_'s tactical assistance was heard in her ears. She threw a glance to her right, she knew the torpedo planes were a threat to the mission, to the safety of her carrier, to her home. But she also knew the fighters were every bit as dangerous: if she died to them, who would stop the bombers?

She turned her head around the cockpit, looking through the glass of her steel cage, trying to find the flight of the bent-wing birds that had surprised her and her wingmates. She was good at what she did, but that didn't change the fact that she was, for lack of a better expression, terrified. She wasn't _green_, but this was the first time she had ever seen a Nohrian air attack quite like this. She had fought Wildcats, Warhawks, and others over the skies of Día. She didn't feel the pulse-pounding terror that filled her veins then. She caught sight of the trio of Nohrian planes, rising and disengaging, and she was sure her countrymen would call them cowards, but something didn't set right with that in her mind. Their attacks were as skilled as any of the others, and while they didn't stay in engagements, it did not make for their approach to be any more cowardly than any other.

She saw a lone torpedo plane, others in the defensive squadron had shot down its wingmates, but it was still flying, under clouds of black flak. She turned in and fired a burst of rounds from her guns. The ball turret's guns fell silent, wildly rotating as the glass smeared red. The plane continued its charge, its bay open, and a single torpedo fell into the water, beginning to churn towards the _Kinnaginata_. "Kinnaginata! This is Caeldori, the enemy has put a torpedo in the water, it's approaching from 2, 6, 8." She called out on the radio.

"Acknowledged, Caeldori." A man replied, and the carrier began turning to port: the torpedo should miss.

Caeldori scanned the sky above, looking for the enemy's fighters which had disappeared into the clouds. She pulled up and looked right, two more bombers. She could take one out, she figured, shifting the stick and putting the plane back into a dive. Her foe was in the center of her orange gunsight: She saw the enemy's tail gunner, a woman with longer silver hair, and fierce purple eyes. Seeing her face was off setting, but after a split-second flinch, she pulled the trigger. The woman was dead, and the Nohrian bomber was aflame: some of the 20mm rounds had hit, enough to put it down. The torpedo cooked off moments later, leaving little left from the aircraft.

She had shot down a bomber, crippled another. That was well enough, but victory was far from her grasp. She needed to help repel this attack. Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw a bent-wing bird. It had teal stripes on its wings, and it was moving fast. This was her chance. She put the plane into a climb, and dropped flaps, rolling and pitching right. There was crack of gunfire, and splashes in the ocean below. Caeldori saw the Nohrian fighter pass below her and knew right then that her plan had worked. She raised the flaps and pushed the throttle past its limiter: War-Emergency Power now enabled on her plane. The engine whined as it accelerated, and she finished her barrel-roll, leveling the plane onto the six of the Nohrian. She'd only get a split second, and she knew it, holding her breath, she feathered the stick. The Nohrian plane began to roll, and in a flash, she pulled the trigger. The 7.7mm guns recoiled in the cockpit, and flashes from the 20mm cannons on her wings accompanied bangs as the guns fired. Fire and metal spewed from the wreckage: the kill was hers.

She put her plane back into a dive and took a quick glance down between her legs, to sight the ammo remaining gauge. She had a little over a third of her 20mm cannon ammo, and she slid her right hand over, still shaking from the adrenaline, switching off the cannons, she needed to conserve. Looking over her shoulder, she was in the clear, and gently put the plane into a climb: get higher up and build up more energy.

Camilla's eyes widened. Her mouth was agape with horror. She had known people wouldn't be coming back from the battle, but she hadn't expected to lose one of her own. "BERUKA!" She screamed into the radio, "Bail out!" Her eyes were fixated upon the burning Corsair. The tail split from the plane, the front of it now inexorably pitched toward the sea, engulfed in flame, trailing thick black smoke. There was no movement from anything human in the burning aircraft. It plunged into the water, disappearing below with a splash that surged into the sky. Beruka was dead.

"Beruka…" Selena said solemnly, her eyes reflecting anger as she traced the path of Beruka's killer through the sky. "Camilla…"

"Selena, I know, but we don't have…" Camilla said, turning her aircraft. "Our mission is protecting our strike planes."

"The Hoshidans are ripping us apart." Selena responded, "That one killed Beruka, and has shot down one of the Torpedo planes."

"Winning will take a miracle," Camilla muttered. "Where are the Stardivers and Dragonfire?" She paused looking around. "Fang squadron's Wildcats are down. Claw Squadron has lost most of its Torpedo bombers. Geirskogul is gone. We've done nothing to any of their carriers. Bombs dropped by Fang has crippled a destroyer, but…"

"Camilla! We have to keep engaging the enemy!" Selena shouted, turning her plane hard, another Hoshidan fighter was moving in to engage the Revenant Knights. Beruka's killer had joined it. "Ugh, fine." Selena shook her head and put her Corsair into a mild dive. Wind picked up across the radiators, and the plane began to whistle, as she sighted the enemy who had killed Beruka. One pass was all she was going to get; it was all she needed.

Caeldori shook in the cockpit of her plane, she swore she heard a distant whistle. The same one that she had heard before when that fighter group had gunned down her wingmates. She sharply looked right, and her eyes involuntarily widened. She was right. There was a Nohrian fighter diving in on her, and it was coming fast. She didn't have time to react, she couldn't react. There were muzzle flashes: the Nohrian was firing on her. She screamed, ducking her head and letting the plane pitch downward. Sickening sounds of metal on metal rang in her ears as the glass shattered, a bullet passed through the canopy and between her legs, putting a surprisingly clean hole through to the sea below. There was a crack as another bullet embedded itself into her engine, causing it to spew thick black smoke, and throw up oil onto the glass. The whistle's pitch changed as the Nohrian passed overhead, turning up and into the sky. She had survived, but the attack had crippled her plane, and the glass in her shoulder hurt. Blood was running down her right arm and she struggled to not lose control. Her face was wet with tears of pain. "Caeldori, return to the carrier. Your plane has had it." The voice of the senior flight leader who had absorbed her into his element ordered. "I will cover you. Go."

She nodded in acknowledgement, turning the Zero back. The engine was struggling to keep running, it spluttered and choked from the damage dealt to it. She couldn't fight any longer, but at least she had her life if she could manage to land. "Gods… it hurts so much…" She said to herself as she tried to keep flying. _Kinnaginata _was only some 12 miles away. She could make the landing.

Selena shook her head, silently cursing to herself as her plane rolled back out of the inverted state that she put it in to avoid colliding with her target: it was a hit, not a kill. She looked over her shoulder; however, she knew she couldn't simply make another pass. Were it a simpler situation, she could easily run-down the wounded Hoshidan. However, it wasn't. She saw the white and black front of the enemy periodically in the mirror in her cockpit. She had a tail. She waved the control stick, preventing the enemy from getting a good shot. "Camilla, cover me. I've got one on my six!"

"Mommy's here." Camilla replied, lining up her plane beside Selena's.

"Ugh. Don't say that. Just get the bastard off my arse!" Selena shouted as bullets flew past her right wing.

"Of course, dear. Let's kill him." Camilla answered.

"I'll take inside," Selena said, looking over and reading the hand signal sent by Camilla. Both planes turned in. Selena's tail gave chase. The percussion of guns followed. A ball of flame is what then all that remained of the foe chasing Selena's plane: Camilla's burst had gunned down the tail. She let out a sigh of relief. "I guess I ow—" Selena started to say, before promptly using her hand to close her mouth.

"I'll let you have that." Camilla replied, "You're still ahead on kills. But this is not looking good."

"Tell me about it!" Selena said, looking around at the unfolding battle. That foe she had tried, and failed to kill, though, had sent a shiver down her spine. "She looked like my mother."

"Who?" Camilla asked.

"N-no one." Selena shook her head with a sigh.

"The enemy pilot?" Camilla responded.

"…My mother is long dead. That one was nothing but an evil specter." Selena sighed. "…What do we need to do now. The torpedo runs were a disaster. We've lost Beruka, most of our wildcats, and two of our other corsairs. Where the hell are the divers?"

Camilla looked down at the fuel gauge, and around the airspace. "We keep fighting. If we retreat now, no one will cover the divers." Camilla bit her lip. "All remaining Revenant Knights, no retreat. Climb. Climb and fight. Fight until we die or there's no more Zeroes! Our lives depend on it!"

Caeldori stumbled as she tried to climb out of her aircraft as it finally had stopped on the _Kinnaginata_'s deck. There was a gap in the flak, and the Nohrians were almost all wiped out. Her flight was successful. While they hadn't stopped some of the enemy from dropping hundred-pound bombs and crippling the _Yukiusagi_, the Nohrian Torpedo planes had failed, there were only two torpedoes put into the water, and thanks in part to her, neither had hit. The problem was that Nohr was successfully destroying their fighters. She couldn't think about it too much though since the pain she was in was truly agonizing. She had burns on her right thigh, and her shoulder was embedded with glass. How she hadn't passed out yet, as blood dripped from her side, she wasn't sure. Two medics, whose faces were a blur to her, put her on a stretcher, a simple bamboo and cloth one and began taking her below deck as she cried. On the flight deck, a call was made to dump the plane overboard: it was on fire and a threat to the ship.

Camilla panted, as she looked up, which given her state of inversion, was down. Two more Zeroes had joined the fray, and she had just about had it. The targets below though were almost certain to be easy kills. Her and Selena both pounced, diving from separate angles. Another Hoshidan downed by Camilla, finally putting her at two kills. It was then as the plane rolled once more skyward, that she saw it. A flight of Nohrian planes, high above the enemy fleet. Her eyes strained against the backdrop to get a good fix on them. "Took you long enough!" She reported on the radio as the friendlies arrived. She counted out the aircraft she could see; twenty-four planes. SBDs, by their silhouette.

"Stardiver Squadron, there's the flattops!" A voice could be heard on the radio. "Dive in and give them hell."

"Stardiver Squadron, we're the Revenant Knights, our torpedo attack had failed. You couldn't ask for better timing, we're currently mixing it up with the Zeroes. Take out those flat tops for us!" Camilla cheered back. The drifting look of defeat faded from the purple-haired woman's eyes, as she turned her plane back into formation with Selena's. A few other Nohrian fighters: Wildcats from other fighter squadrons and Corsairs from the proper Revenant Knights formed up on Camilla's plane. The makeshift formation's hope was rekindled, as the dive bombers appeared high above the battlefield. The Hoshidans had taken notice: their flak was roaring, aimed high and fast. There was panic on the decks of the carriers at the sight of the new threat. Zeroes were turning to meet the dive bombers. "Revenant Knights, you are the wings of Nohr! Stop the Hoshidans! Get the Stardivers through!" she ordered.

Guns were flaring. Two Zeroes rose in the cacophony, only for a barrage of Nohrian gunfire to cut them down. The dive bombers were accelerating in the middle of their dive. One of the bombers was hit by a flak shell and burst into flames, but the others continued. The anxiety was building within Camilla's chest, she could feel her heart pound, and her blood almost was burning. She pushed her plane into war emergency power, trying hard to catch one of the Hoshidan fighters as they raced towards the dive bombers. Two planes pulled up, splashes beside a carrier. A third's nose rose, only for its wing to shear off as it took a hit.

A column of flame erupted from one of the carriers. The bombers had hit. A series of secondary explosions rattled from the side of the vessel. It was dead in the water and burning. A tremendous explosion came from near the bow: the Hoshidan carrier's flight deck was gone, her guns silenced as gunners were maimed and killed. Three more divers pulled up and out of their dives. Another set of massive explosions rocked a second carrier, as fire and smoke billowed away from the ship, it was clear that the bomb hit was fatal: the ship was torn into two and sinking fast. Oil spilled from the side of the ship, setting fire to the water. Another Stardiver began trailing smoke, unable to pull away, it slammed into the top of its target, a cruiser, striking a turret. A fountain of flame signaled the explosive death of that ship as well.

"Dawn Dragon save us…" A Sailor said aboard the _Kinnaginata_'s flight deck as he looked on in horror. The Hoshidan fleet had been hit. The invincible Southern Combined Fleet had been hit. Around him, he saw the devastation. Two carriers, gone: one had been sunk, and the other was a burning hulk. A heavy cruiser, sunk, the AA had knocked out the pilot of the dive bomber, turning it into a missile which blew up its magazine. He looked up as the ship's AA turned all to face one point. The Nohrians were coming. The dive bombers were still coming. The fighters were unable to reach them, and the AA just wasn't enough. Frantic yelling as the AA crews fired all guns blazing in desperation. His eyes went wide as he saw the bomb. It fell only a few feet from him. Punched a hole through the _Kinnaginata_'s flight deck. His face contorted as he realized where it had fallen. Below, down a mere three decks was the storage for the aviation gasoline. He instinctively ran towards the stern of the ship, though his legs couldn't carry him far enough. The blast came, and his life left.

Four decks below, in the _Kinnaginata_'s sickbay, Caeldori was unaware of the chaos going on outside. That was until the ship was hit. The blast threw her from her bed and tossed her against the bulkhead. Her arm was shattered, and she couldn't move. Fire raged in her vision, as she bled. She spasmed, trying to get up, but her body wasn't responding. She hurt, and she was having trouble breathing. Smoke was getting to her, and panic filled her mind. "Gods..! Someone help..!" She begged, her voice weak, even though she was exerting all the force she could with her lungs. She coughed, trying everything she could think of to escape her situation. "I… I don't want to die…" She looked around. There was no one living in the space, save for her. The blast had killed the corpsmen and doctors who were trying to take care of her injury. It hadn't killed her, but the growing fire in the ship threatened to. The room was getting hotter and she felt the bulkhead heating up: the space adjacent to her must be on fire, and she was unable to move. Unable to do anything, helpless and afraid. "…father… help me…" She cried, "…Mother…!" She shook, in tears, in pain. The bulkhead burned her as the heat from the fires had raised it to scorching temperatures. She screamed out in agony as it cooked her skin. "Someone help me, please!" She cried out amidst her screams, her voice echoing off the burning walls the only reply she got, as her eyes shut, overcame by pain.

"Gods! Camilla! Did you see that?!" Selena exclaimed as she looked back at the burning wreckage of the Hoshidan carriers. The Hoshidan carrier fleet was no more. The SBDs from the Stardivers had seen to its end. The few remaining Hoshidan aircraft airborne began to give chase. The Dauntless weren't out of the fight yet, and Selena knew it. "We're getting you guys home." She said, putting her plane into a loop, ready to engage on the Hoshidan fighters that had now lost their carriers.

"Let's go… Revenant Knights, cover the Stardivers, all the way back to the _Queen Arete_!" Camilla ordered, looking over her shoulder.

* * *

**Author's Note: **We meet at... yes, Midway. Though it should be obvious that Second Sevenfold is kind of this AU's "Midway". That said, there's way more to this battle. It's just with the current bit being OVER 9000 words, I kind of needed to end the chapter, else it'd be approaching lengths of single chapters that really shouldn't be. If I put everything I outlined, this would've taken two more weeks and been over 35k words. Let's not. Anyway, to reply to the reviews: I think Dylan was the only one to pick up on Azura's conversation with Corrin last chapter being very loosely based on her Conquest support- this fic is rather, um, Conquest based. Meanwhile, there's a bit of a subplot involving the timing of the assination and the attack, that I'm not disclosing yet.

Also, the Mark 11 Rangekeeper is actually a badass piece of equipment, it's an analog computer, and when the US Navy went to modernize the Iowas in the 80s, they decided that even with the brand new technology they wouldn't do any better (that said, slapping a DD at 15 miles with a ranging shot is well, lucky for Leo, and unlucky for Hisame.) No weapon profile this chapter, though the next one is going to be on the Harekaze-class Destroyer.

Thanks so much for the reviews last time! Certainly enjoy more.


	9. Chapter 7: Rainswept Tears

**Chapter 7: Rainswept Tears**

* * *

_Location: Northern Sevenfold Sanctuary Island_  
_Date: 23rd Of December; First Year of Open War_  
_Time: 12:12 Local_

Clouds had gathered overhead, and a light rain was beginning to trickle down upon the island. Were it not a time of war, the typhoon would have people sheltering, but amidst the mud and barbed wire at the edge of the Hoshidan outpost, there wasn't such a luxury. A plane touched down on the runway, and already the ground crew was fast at work refueling the aircraft and giving it an inspection, with the pilot disembarked and walking with a few others to the command building. A self-propelled AA gun rolled past a hangar, on patrol as a few Hoshidan soldiers warily looked about.

"Rain… open top tank, fucking great engineering." One of the soldiers in the turret of the AA gun said, sarcastically, venting her frustrations at the situation.

"Of course, you'd complain, you always do, Izumi." Another woman responded from within the machine. "You complained about the food this morning, you complain about the tank, you complain about having to do maintenance, you complain about your bed, you complain you're not with Hiroyuki right now. It's just like you to complain about this patrol too."

"You're not the one stuck getting rained on, Yumiko." The complaining woman replied, flicking her hand through her soaked hair. "Wait, is that Princess Hinoka?" She said, picking up her binoculars and looking through them at another woman across the runway. "It is… what is she doing here?"

"I heard she got sent to the frontlines for morale support, but isn't she supposed to be on the Carriers…" A brown-haired man said, sitting up and looking out of the tank across the way. "Come to think of it, we've had a large amount of carrier aircraft making landings. Did something happen?"

"Besides the Nohrian scum trying to assassinate Prince Takumi earlier? I don't know, Mikazuki." Yumiko answered from below.

"Some of them were carrying weapons… a few of the Zeroes had bombs." Izumi noted as she spied through her binoculars. She couldn't get a clear view of the Princess, but the movement of the soldiers around her was clearly urgent. She stopped, looking right and up into the air. "Those are torpedo planes… They have torpedoes. They're flying really slow, like they've been up for a long time and are running out of fuel."

"That's strange," Mikazuki said, watching the planes come down one after another, bouncing to a stop on the wet runway. They were clearly carrier planes, carrying insignia of the _Kinnaginata_. "Looks like they're all carrier planes. Torpedo bombers with torpedoes… why would they come here instead of returning to their carrier?"

"Something must have happened," Yumiko said, "…I don't like the look of it."

"Dawn Dragon please let nothing have happened to the fleet. I don't know what I'd do if Hiroyuki died and he was on the _Setsugekka_… and that was one of the ships out there with that ship Hinoka was supposed to be on…" Izumi said, as she watched the door open to the command building. She felt a chill, and it wasn't the cold of the rain. Prince Takumi and a flag officer stepped out of the building, followed by two other officers. There clearly was something serious, deathly serious, going on. It was too far to make a clear look at the men's faces, but the uniforms gave away officers, and men that important wouldn't simply step outside for nothing. Not that urgently and not in this weather.

Hinoka shook her head, and placed her face into her palms, rubbing away tears. "…how many. How many of our soldiers and sailors were on those carriers?" She asked, choking on her words. "How many are dead now?" She sobbed, "The _Kinnaginata _was a raging inferno when I got back… _Setsugekka_ was nothing… she was gone, just a column of smoke and debris. The _Hagakure_ was listing… her flight deck was touching the water… fires were… everywhere. _Higanbana _was hit too… her flight deck was unusable, but… at least she still was afloat, but I guess she was flooding out." She breathed heavily, as she felt a hand upon her back. "How many are dead…? How many lives extinguished?" She asked, as tears rolled from her stern eyes, her face red and swollen from the emotion, her nose running slightly.

"…Hinoka…" Takumi said softly, patting his sister on her back.

"How… how could we lose like this?" Hinoka begged. "We… can't. I can't allow this!" She screamed into the sky. "How many aircraft do we have at this base?" She asked, looking at the flag officer who had one flower on his shoulder. "How many Strike aircraft?"

"We have 19 Type 97s. 12 Hamaki. We also can arm and refuel the aircraft returning from the carriers, your Imperial highness." The general said, with a bow. "Our other bombers are not fit for combat. The resistance mounted a surprise attack this morning. An attempt on Takumi's life was made, and saboteurs set a fire in a hangar. We lost several aircraft."

"Fighters?" Hinoka asked, her face now an indignant scowl, as she looked over her left shoulder. A hangar and two buildings beside it were still smoldering, columns of thick black smoke rolled from them.

"Two squadrons, Hayabusa fighters." The general replied.

"How quickly can we get all of them ready to strike, including our returning aircraft?" She asked, turning back to face the general.

"About an hour and a half." The general said, nervously as Hinoka stared directly at him.

"Make the—" she started to say, but Takumi put his hand out.

"Hinoka. You're not planning on trying to send out a strike against them right now. This isn't happening."

"Brother!" Hinoka exclaimed, "The Nohrians killed how many of our people out there!?" She balled her fists, glowering at Takumi, "And you of all people would have me not strike back at them?"

"Don't misunderstand me, Hinoka." Takumi explained, running his gloved hand along his rifle, as he turned northward, looking up the hill to the part of the Hoshidan base where the firefight had occurred earlier. "I don't wish for you to let them go, but we're facing a typhoon. And by time that flight arrives, it will be nearing the night. Loathe as I am to say it but that is not the time to fight Nohr. Not from the sky. Leave this to our Battleships. The typhoon will ground their aircraft as it does to ours, and _Fujinkyu_ will smash them."

"No. I can't." Hinoka shook her head, her tear stained face still a scowl. "I can't just sit back and assume that the Battleship fleet will win this." She said, grabbing her hair by its roots, and dragging her fingers through it, the frustration showing on her face. "I'm sorry, brother, but I cannot sit back. Not while our people suffer and die, not while our good sailors burn and drown at the hands of Nohr and their bombs." She huffed, before lightly striking the prince's chest with her fist.

"Hinoka… you can't just fly off and die. It'd be too much of a risk to send you to lead that strike." Takumi said, shaking his head. "Were it any other time, I'd demand to join you, but it's not just the Nohrian scum you'd be facing. There's a typhoon."

"If we don't strike back, that means those thousands of soldiers died in vain, and they will march on this island next." Hinoka's eyes were showing furor but were bloodshot and filled with tears. "We have to hit them back. A strike force should be able to sink their carriers, and we now have an actual bearing on where the Nohrians are."

"And if we fail, if you fail? The force gets caught up by the storm, and we have more losses." Takumi pleaded, "Leave this to the battleships."

"Takumi. This isn't like you." Hinoka said, shaking her head. "What if you're wrong? What if the Nohrians strike our battleships with their carrier force? What if _Fujinkyu_ is sunk? Would you live with yourself if you holding me back got Oboro killed?"

Takumi swallowed, turning his head to face the muddy ground for a moment. The sudden, almost explosive, sound of the command building's door opening made both Royals as well as the two officers suddenly turn to the right, their eyes all meeting with those of a fearful looking Hoshidan soldier. The soldier's face wore a bug-eyed expression as he held in his hand a sheet of yellowed continuous feed paper in his left hand. He quickly moved to salute the officers and the two royals.

Takumi returned the man's salute and gave him a once over, "Why the rush, Petty Officer?"

"Your Imperial highness, we have news from the frontline… all four of our Carriers have been destroyed." He swallowed hard. "_Kinnaginata_ was scuttled, and in the process of moving her few surviving crew to the _Higanbana_, she fell under attack by a Nohrian submarine. Two torpedo hits… she sunk rapidly. Admiral Hidetora was killed as well." The man nervously handed over the print off before bowing.

"Thank you for the report, carry on." The general said, motioning for the younger man to return to his post inside the building.

"Dammit…" Takumi said, staring at the sheet, caring little that the report was getting wet in the rain and would soon crumble in his hands. He looked over at Hinoka. Her expression had hardly changed, still showing the indignant rage and despair over the loss and resultant loss of life. "Hinoka, I suggest we move indoors. There is much more to discuss. General, have the soldiers begin readying the aircraft."

"Of course, your Imperial Highness." The General bowed and nodded at the other officer who promptly turned and walked into the building.

Across the airfield Izumi put down her binoculars and shook her head. "They headed into the command building… and Princess Hinoka looked upset. She hit Lord Takumi." She shook her head, her voice quaking with worry. "What could've happened out there?"

"She hit him!?" Yumiko exclaimed.

"Well, it was more like a tap, he didn't even really react." Izumi responded.

"Don't overstate things like that, Izumi," Mikazuki bluntly said, "It makes it sound worse than what it was."

"But it made it seem like she was really upset," Izumi's voice was clearly worried. "I can't imagine anything good happened."

"Certainly not…" Mikazuki said, pointing out a group of soldiers walking to a flagpole. It was an honor guard, and they fired rifles in salute before lowering the flag that hung on the pole. "They lowered the flag to half… we must have suffered a defeat."

A siren rang through the base and the three tankers all looked around, Izumi training her eyes on the sky. Nothing but ever darkening grey clouds and more rain. No sign of enemy air attack, though it wasn't an air-raid siren that was sounding.

"Taikusensha Roku, please cross Runway 13 to Midfield." A radio message came through to the tank. "Continue with patrol. Ignore the ready alert, it's for the air group."

Mikazuki picked up the radio and keyed it, "Understood control tower. Permission to ask a question."

"Go ahead Taikusensha Roku." The Control Tower's ground control responded.

"What is happening?" Mikazuki asked plainly.

"There is a call for an immediate sortie, Nohr's fleet is moving inbound from the north." The ground control responded. "I don't know any more, but given the urgency, I fear our fleet may have taken heavy damage."

"Thank you control tower. Taikusensha Roku proceeding across Runway One Three to Midfield." Mikazuki responded, putting the radio back down into the tank, sheltering it from the rain in a small pocket of metal in the gun shield. He looked over at Izumi with a grim look on his face.

"Heavy damage to the fleet…" Izumi's lips shook. "I pray to the Dawn Dragon that _Setsugekka _is at least afloat…" She said to herself, worried enough that a few tears fell from her face. Mikazuki shook his head and slumped over against the gun shield, looking into the greenery that surrounded the base.

_Location: Nohrian Carrier Queen Arete; 167 Nautical Miles from Northern Sevenfold Sanctuary Island_  
_Date: 23rd Of December; First Year of Open War._  
_Time: 12:52 Local_

Selena's plane touched down, or rather slammed down, catching the wire hard. The prop stopped spinning, the engine cut off as the crew began preparing to take the plane for maintenance and repair. Selena tiredly hopped out of the cockpit, breathing a long sigh of relief as her boots hit the wood of the ship's flight deck. She wiped her forehead, looking around briefly before lazily slumping against the bulkhead of the ship's island. As one of the sailors, a corpsman from the look, ran up to her she waved her hand to the side, "I'm thirsty and tired, not injured." She huffed, standing back up, leaning forward such that her feet were at a slight angle, pushing her rear against the bulkhead.

"Report, Commander?" Another sailor asked, holding a clipboard.

"Give me a moment to rest," she said, looking over across the way as she saw some of Nohr's strike aircraft landing. "We kicked Hoshido where it hurts. I got enough to make me an Ace."

"How many?" The man asked.

"Three. I got three kills and forced one to retreat with a hit. Camilla got 2. …Beruka had 2 but she… she isn't coming home." Selena's face turned into a sharp frown. "…with the three from the first battle, that's a total of 6, it's one more than an Ace."

"The enemy's fleet?" The man asked, as Selena took a drink from a canteen brought to her. She wiped her head and took off her outer layer of clothes, draping the heavy jacket over her arm.

"The_ Stardivers_ got 'em. Three carriers are sunk, the fourth was burning. Fang squadron dropped some bombs on a destroyer, but it's still sailing… A heavy cruiser got blown up." Selena sighed, as she moved up, while the flight deck crew moved her plane forward and onto an elevator to get it below deck for maintenance.

"Sounds like the _Lady Edelgard_'s squadrons did well." The man commented as he quickly wrote down some details onto the log he was keeping.

"The _Stardivers_ did well." Selena scoffed. "_Dragonfire_ was nowhere to be seen, and the torpedo planes got shot to hell: _Geirskogul_ was obliterated. We won… but," she paused, narrowing her eyes and looking to the left, "We lost a lot of good pilots."

The man nodded, "Well, if that's it for your report, air boss wanted all the pilots below for debriefing and recovery."

"I know, I know. And we can bet that the Hoshidans won't let us be. They know where we are now." Selena waved as she stumbled back to her feet and opened the door to the island, and thusly to the ready rooms below. There was a sudden scream and a burst of noise, as a man jumped into the path of a loose torpedo, straddling it and skidding his boots with it to bring it to a stop before it caused damage: one of the torpedo planes had made it back, and unfortunately, the weapon's holding clamps failed. A rolling cloud of smoke fumed from the plane, as its pilot stumbled out, blood splattered across his face.

"…wrong carrier, but gods, this devastator wasn't going to make it to the right one. … Fritz didn't." The pilot said, as he looked at the man with the clipboard. "Gods, those Hoshidan bastards, they killed Fritz! They've killed Fritz! Those lousy stinking yellow fairies!" He practically shouted looking back at his burning plane. As his outburst ended, he took off his bloodied skullcap. He had white hair and a purple tattoo now visible beneath his ruffled uniform. Tears ran down the man's face, and he had a gouge beneath his left ear. "Those horrible atrocity-filled vermin! Those despicable animal warmongers!" He exclaimed raising his right fist.

"Calm down sir." The sailor with the clipboard said, motioning for the corpsman to come to the ailing pilot's aid. "What's your name and ship?"

"…I'm Ensign Tancred from the _Rigain Celica_." He shook his head, his breathing slowing with a long pause. "My Navigator and rear-seat gunner was ARM3 Fritz… Fritz Coffman. …he was a good lad. Damn Hoshidan fairies got on our six. He knocked one down, but they killed him for it… Bloody Peony-looking bastards… put a cannon round right through his skull. Shot up my plane too…those damn Plumeria-looking freaks." Tancred continued, shaking his head, while his right hand spasmed. He looked over at a female sailor in a medical garb, and with little words, nodded and walked past Selena into the belly of the ship.

"Selena!" A voice called out, once more prompting the red-head to stop and turn back before descending into the ship herself.

"Laslow, what do you want?" She asked, annoyed, as she saw the man walk up to the door. He had some kind of a drink pouch, which he promptly tossed Selena's way. She caught it and looked directly at him, unaware of the blush on her face. "You know I have to go make another report after that, right? And you're getting in my way."

"Hey, is that a flustered look I see there?" Laslow laughed.

"No, gawds no." Selena said, forcing a scowl.

"You did well, or so I heard." Laslow said.

"Yeah, thanks, but no. Beruka's dead, we lost most of our torpedo planes, and all of us are worse for it." She huffed. "Now, excuse me but I have a report to give to people far more important than _you_."

"Hey… just good to see you came back alive, Selena." Laslow said nodding as he about-faced and walked back into the blazing sunlight that bathed the deck of the carrier.

* * *

**Author's Note: ** Yeah, shorter chapter. Mostly just wanted to get this update out after a fair hiatus. Not much to say here, just a good ole "Reads and Reviews are appreciated".


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